Virgin Australia Group announced it had reached an agreement with Boeing to restructure its previous Boeing 737 MAX order.
On December 9, 2020, the airline agreed with the plane manufacturer to restructure its Boeing 737 MAX order and review the schedule of delivery. Following the recent order book update, Virgin Australia would be taking the delivery of 25 Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft from the middle of 2023, according to the statement. The airline also cancelled its Boeing 737 MAX 8 order, which was previously part of the overall deal.
Jayne Hrdlicka, the CEO and Managing director of Virgin Australia Group, noticed that the agreement represented “a deep commitment to the future from the airline’s new owners [Bain Capital]”. The airline’s MAX order update should allow the air carrier to ease the adaptation to challenging operating conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“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,” said Hrdlicka in a statement.
The airline plans to simplify its fleet for future domestic and short-haul international operations while deploying the Boeing 737 MAX 10 on high-density domestic and short-haul international routes, according to the statement.
The former Virgin (VAH) order consisted of 25 Boeing 737 MAX 10s with scheduled delivery from July 2021 as well as 23 737 MAX 8s which had to be transferred to the airline in February 2025, Boeing order book showed.