Even more good news came this week for AAR and its operations in Oklahoma City.
“Good news for AAR!” wrote Bill Hancock, Business Services and Rapid Response Coordinator at the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development who took note after it was announced Alaska Airlines said it reached agreement to lease 737 MAX 9 aircraft.
Alaska Airlines maintains its fleet of 737 jetliners in Oklahoma City and struck a deal with U.S. lessor Air Lease Corp. The airline will lease 13 Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes with 10 Airbus A320s heading the other way in exchange, according to Hancock.
The 13 new jets acquired by Alaska Airlines are in addition to the 32 MAX planes it has already committed to ordering from Boeing. The airline plans to start passenger flights along the West Coast with newly-delivered MAX planes by March 2021, before expanding to the East Coast after a few months.
Boeing and Alaska Airlines have also reportedly held discussions about increasing their 737 MAX order by a further 37 planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved the return last week of Boeing’s troubled 737 MAX airliner following two fatal airline crashes in 2019.
