Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990 departs from Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California on November 10, 2020.
AaronP | GC images | Getty Images
Alaska Airlines has agreed to buy nearly two dozen additional Boeing 737 Max planes, the first order from a US carrier since regulators approved the planes to resume flying after two deadly crashes last month.
Alaska said on Tuesday that 68 of the 737 Max 9 planes will be delivered, an increase from the 32 it had previously ordered. Twenty-three of these will be purchased from Boeing and 13 more will be leased from Air Lease.
The Federal Aviation Administration last month lifted a grounding order placed on the planes after two nearly new Max jetliners crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing all 346 people on board the two flights.
Boeing grapples with the nearly two-year grounding caused by the coronavirus crisis, which caused demand – and prices – for its planes to drop.
CEO Brad Tilden declined to disclose the price of the planes, but told CNBC that nine of the Max jetliners it buys are so-called white tails, planes built but not owned.
Alaska, which is based in Seattle near Boeing’s Max manufacturing plant, has options to purchase an additional 52 aircraft as it transition to a nearly all-Boeing fleet in the coming years. The airline has a fleet of a mix of Boeing and Airbus jets thanks to its 2016 merger with Virgin America.
The airline is now starting to train its pilots, including Airbus pilots, on the Max. Tilden said the company has trained 830 of the approximately 3,000 pilots on the airbus, a number that will drop to about 145 by the end of the summer of 2023.
Earlier this month, European budget carrier Ryanair announced an order for 75 Max jets for the order of 135 aircraft, the largest order in two years.
Alaska plans to fly the Max in the first quarter and receive its first Max jet in January. It had not received any of the aircraft at the time of grounding in March 2019.