After the cancellation of 75 Boeing 737 MAX orders in April 2020, the Irish-based lessor Avolon reduced its orderbook by another 27 of the jets on July 7, 2020, to consolidate its capital amidst the coronavirus crisis. The 27 aircraft were expected to be delivered between 2020 and 2022.
Additionally, Avolon canceled the order for an Airbus A330neo and postponed the delivery of three A320neo family jets from 2020 to 2022.
Earlier this year, in April 2020, Avolon already canceled an order for 75 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, and three Airbus A330neo jets. It also deferred the deliveries of 25 narrow-body aircraft to 2024 or thereafter: 16 MAXs and nine Airbus A320neo.
“We have reduced our near-term commitments by over 140 aircraft since the start of the year,” commented Dómhnal Slattery, Avolon CEO. “These actions provide us with the capital strength to manage through this market backdrop and to support our customers through the recovery.”
Is the worst yet to come?
A week before Avolon’s decision, Boeing had already faced a series of cancellations. On June 29, 2020, the low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle canceled all its pending orders with Boeing, which included 92 737 MAX and 5 787 Dreamliner jets. Another major lessor, BOC Aviation, also canceled an order for 30 MAX aircraft. In 2020, 313 Boeing 737 MAX orders were canceled.
The news came on the same day when Boeing successfully carried out the first test flights for the recertification of its 737 MAX, in the lead-up to the plane’s return to service after 14 months of global grounding. The three-day flight campaign aimed at testing the updated MCAS that initially caused the two crashes that killed 346 people.