By Sam McPhee For Daily Mail Australia and Reuters
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Virgin Australia said it will add four new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to its fleet to meet higher demand as the airline expects to hit pre-pandemic domestic capacity by mid-2022.
The model, which saw two fatal crashes in a six-month period between October 2018 and March 2019 that resulted in 346 deaths, had been suspended from markets around the world.
However, major airlines around the world have began re-purchasing the 737 MAX’s after being cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration and national bodies. There are now more than 2,000 flights on the aircraft and 41 airlines have returned them to service.
Virgin Australia said on Friday it will add four new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to its fleet to meet higher demand
In a statement last Friday, Virgin Australia’s CEO said the increase in demand for flights around the country due to the pandemic subsiding saw the need for the company to bring in the new fleet of planes.
‘We are on track to return to 100% of pre-COVID domestic capacity by June this year and expect to well exceed those levels by year’s end,’ Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka said.
‘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.
She said the 737 MAX 10 would be deployed on high-density domestic and short-haul international routes.
Australia’s second-biggest airline, which is now owned by U.S. private equity group Bain Capital, also saw high demand in the resources sector and in contract flying in Western Australia.
The four new aircraft will take the airline’s fleet of 737 planes to 88 and enter service early next year.
VA say the 737 MAX 10s would be deployed on high-density domestic and short-haul international routes
In 2020, Virgin Australia restructured its 737 MAX order to include more of the largest 737 MAX 10 variant and had pushed back on the smaller MAX 8.
Virgin has removed 777 and Airbus SE A330 widebody planes from its fleet, centering its operations around the 737 as part of an effort to cut costs as it repositions as a largely domestic mid-tier airline rather than a full-service carrier.
Technical issues with the 737 MAXs saw the aircraft’s flight-control system automatically push down the noses of jets that crashed in 2018 in Indonesia, and in 2019 in Ethiopia.
A crash in Ethiopia in March 2019 on a Boeing MAX 737 was related to the plane’s crash prevention system. Pictured: rescuers work at the crash site in Addis Ababa
On October 29, 2018, the Boeing 737 MAX operating the Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 passengers and crew.
It was the first major accident involving the new Boeing 737 MAX series of aircraft, introduced in 2017, and the highest death toll of any accident or incident involving the entire Boeing 737 series.
Five months later, on March 10, 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft which operated Ethiopian flight 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, Ethiopia, six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard. It is Ethiopian Airlines’ deadliest accident to date.
Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
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