Air Lease Corporation (ALC) dropped the “MAX” title from the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft name and referred it as Boeing 737-8.
The name changes appeared after ALC announced that it would deliver two new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft to Canada’s low-cost air carrier Sunwing Airlines on February 3, 2021.
“ALC is pleased to announce these two new Boeing 737-8 deliveries to Sunwing Airlines today,” John L. Plueger, the CEO of Air Lease Corporation (ALC), said in a statement.
However, it is not the first time companies refer to the Boeing 737 MAX in a different name. In a wake of the Boeing 737 MAX crisis, which followed two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, Ryanair seemed to have switched the aircraft name to Boeing 737-8200.
The specific configuration of Ryanair Boeing 737 MAX orders were already referenced by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as “747-8200” in its official documents.
On April 15, 2019, president of the United States Donald Trump also suggested rebranding the troubled aircraft.
“What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!), but if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name. No product has suffered like this one. But again, what the hell do I know?” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Additionally, the speculations about a new name re-emerged when Boeing put out the statement to announce it had won the order for the grounded Boeing 737-8 aircraft on August 19, 2020.
After 20 months of grounding, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States was the first to recertify the Boeing 737 MAX, allowing it to enter commercial service in the country again on November 18, 2020.