Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) has announced the return of B737-8s to its fleet after it signed a deal for the lease of ten units of the type from AerCap.
"The addition of these aircraft will help us achieve our target of building a larger, modern and more fuel-efficient fleet. This will, in turn, enable us to deliver our products and services in a wide network of routes in the Nordics and to European destinations," Chief Executive Geir Karlsen said.
All ten aircraft are scheduled for delivery by the summer 2023 season.
Norwegian Group took delivery of eighteen B737-8s before the March 2019 grounding of the type. The group placed them on various AOCs, including Norwegian, Norwegian Air International, and Norwegian Air Sweden, sometimes transferring the aircraft between the group carriers, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows. In February 2021, the airline, reeling from a deep financial crisis, announced that it no longer had plans to operate any B737 MAX and would focus on B737-800s going forward. However, as soon as September 2021, Karlsen said that the type would, after all, be a part of the airline's future fleet.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that out of the 18 aircraft delivered prior to the B737 MAX grounding, Norwegian still has one unit on its AOC, while Norwegian Air Sweden retains five. It is not clear if Norwegian plans to reactivate these aircraft as well or if it would rather be sourcing new units.
Norwegian did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment.
The airline's deal with AerCap also covers eight B737-800s. Norwegian plans to increase its group fleet to 80 aircraft by summer 2023. Currently, it operates fifty-seven B737-800s across its two technical AOCs, Norwegian Air Shuttle AOC and Norwegian Air Sweden AOC, the ch-aviation fleets module shows. The airline said in the press release that its future lease commitments contain clauses allowing it to swap some of the aircraft for Airbus narrowbodies.
The group still has a firm order for seventy-eight B737-8s from Boeing as the formal termination of the contract remains subject to litigation in the US.
