Virgin Australia has reached an agreement with Boeing to restructure its 737 Max order book to reflect the cancellation of an order for 23 Max 8s and the rescheduling of first delivery of an order for 25 Max 10s from July 2021 to mid-2023.
Virgin Australia’s own fleet restructuring exercise, announced in August, has transformed it into a mainly domestic and short-haul international airline under new owner Bain Capital. The overhaul has seen it remove its Boeing 777-300s and Airbus A330-200s and result in the loss of 3,000 jobs and the suspension of its low-cost brand, Tigerair Australia. The airline said Tuesday, however, that it remains in discussions with aircraft manufacturers on a fleet strategy to support the reintroduction of widebody services when long-haul international travel demand returns.
“We have already moved to simplify our mainline fleet and committed to the Boeing 737 aircraft as the backbone of our future domestic and short-haul international operations,” said Virgin Australia Group CEO and managing director Jayne Hrdlicka said in a statement released on Tuesday. “The restructured agreement and changes to the delivery schedule of the Boeing 737 Max 10 gives us the flexibility to continually review our future fleet requirements, particularly as we wait for international travel demand to return.
"The Max 10 will allow us to build on the operational flexibility we have been able to achieve with our existing fleet throughout administration to ensure we remain competitive on the other side of Covid-19.”
Virgin Australia’s order for the 25 Max 10s entered the Boeing order books last month, when the company saw its order count for the Max fall by 63 airplanes due to cancellations, conversions, and accounting adjustments for aircraft it does not expect to deliver. The company reported seven deliveries during the month, only one of which involved a passenger airline.