Air India (AI, Delhi International) will take 55 remarketed B737 MAX originally earmarked for customers in China, Leeham News has reported citing internal sources. The aircraft are part of the Indian carrier's recent order for 190jets and are not incremental.
Boeing confirmed during a recent earnings call that it had managed to find buyer(s) for the unwanted MAX but did not reveal their identity.
"We ended the [second] quarter with approximately 228 MAX airplanes in inventory. This includes 85 for customers in China and 55 that have now been remarketed as part of the plan we have previously discussed," Chief Financial Officer Brian West said.
Chief Executive Dave Calhoun emphasised that the remarketing was conducted "with permission of" and in dialogue with Chinese customers. The American manufacturer has been dithering on its plans to remarket the China-bound B737 MAX, initially announcing the plan in September 2022 only to backtrack in early 2023. Rumours first emerged in late 2022 that Boeing was hawking a portion of the 140 aircraft to Air India.
For their part, Chinese airlines have yet to resume B737 MAX deliveries despite the type being nearly all back in service in the country.
"Everybody is very happy with the performance. In fact, the reliability of the fleet has been fantastic. And we are getting a lot of good signs that they will resume delivery, but I am not going to predict that for you. We are just going to keep managing it exactly the way we have been. We are not dependent on it. We want to do it, and we certainly want to support our customers in China," Calhoun said.
Air India has an order for 140 B737-8s and fifty B737-10s directly from the manufacturer but will have to reconfigure the original China-bound jets. Air India did not respond to the ch-aviation's request for confirmation and more details.
