Polish charter carrier Enter Air has announced it will increase its orders for the Boeing 737 MAX 8 by two planes.
The agreement also includes two additional purchase options which, if exercised, would bring Enter Air’s total MAX fleet to ten. Grzegorz Polaniecki, General Director of the airline, says that he is convinced the 737 MAX will be ‘the best aircraft in the world for many years to come’, once it has been re-certified.
This new order for up to four new aircraft comes as the 737 MAX is still grounded around the world. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had recently asked Boeing to make some adjustments to their fixes for the troubled aircraft type that has been sitting on the ground for close to one and a half years now.
Meanwhile, Boeing was hit by several big cancellations for the type over the past months, as many airlines around the world are struggling to cope with the Coronavirus crisis. European low-cost carrier Norwegian Air, an existing major customer of the 737 MAX, cancelled its order for 92 in June.
Boeing and Enter Air say they were able to reach an agreement to compensate for the duration of the 737 MAX grounding, although details have not been specified. The airline took delivery of its first MAX in December 2018.
In the press release for the order, Boeing refers to the aircraft as both 737-8 and 737 MAX, hinting that the manufacturer may be trying to drop the ‘MAX’ name entirely. While no name change has been suggested by the company, Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair was seen ‘renaming’ its not yet delivered 737 MAX 200 into 737-8200 last year.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
