A United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 airplane lands at San Francisco International Airport.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
United Airlines is purchasing 25 extra Boeing 737 Max aircrafts and taking shipment of other orders previously than formerly prepared as it gets ready for a healing in travel need, the provider stated Monday.
“As we plan for the future and the return of demand, we’ve been looking at ways to best position our fleet for the recovery and be in a position to best take advantage of people’s desire to travel,” Andrew Nocella, United’s primary business officer, stated in a note to personnel.
In addition to the 25 Boeing 737 Max aircrafts that are slated for shipment in 2023, the Chicago-based airline company stated it went up the shipment of 40 other Max jets to 2022 and 5 others to 2023. In overall, United has firm dedications for 188 Maxes, according to a securities filing Monday.
The vote of self-confidence in the jetliner comes simply months after the Federal Aviation Administration raised its restriction on the aircrafts following 2 fatal crashes. United, which had 14 Boeing Max 9 jets in its fleet at the time of the March 2019 grounding, began getting the aircrafts from Boeing once again in December, the very first provider to do so. It began business flights with those jets last month.
United lost more than $7 billion in 2015 as it had a hard time, like other airline companies, in the Covid-19 pandemic. Travel need is anticipated to stay weak in the very first half of the year. United stated in the filing that it anticipates its first-quarter capability to be down a minimum of 51% compared to the very same quarter of 2019.
But the airline company is now getting ready for a healing with vaccine circulation getting.
“And as the end of the pandemic nears and vaccines continue to roll out, today’s fleet announcement helps position us to meet the demand we expect to see in 2022 and 2023 and puts us on a path toward more opportunities for our employees in the future,” composed Nocella.
Boeing shares increased 5.8% on Monday to close at $224.39, while United’s got 1.2% to end at $53.31 throughout a broad stock-market rally.
