Boeing targets Delta with B737 MAX white tail offer

Boeing (BOE, Chicago O’Hare) has approached Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) with an offer to sell it up to forty B737 MAX that have not been taken up by other customers, Reuters said citing two sources close to the development. Neither of the companies commented on the report which said other potential customers besides Delta had also been approached. Delta Air Lines remains the only US mainline carrier with no B737 MAX on order. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, its A320/B737 fleet consists of fifty-seven A319-100s, sixty-two A320-200s, 103 A321-200s, seventy-seven B737-800s, and 130 B737-900(ER)s. It has a further twenty-five A321-200s and 100 A321-200Ns on order from Airbus, but not a single aircraft – narrow- or widebody – on firm order directly from Boeing. The American manufacturer has lost over 400 B737 MAX commitments in 2020 alone, through a combination of weak demand for new aircraft among COVID-ravaged airlines and the type’s lengthy recertification process. Despite the grounding of all B737 MAX aircraft in March 2019 and the subsequent suspension of new deliveries, Boeing continued to produce new units of the type through early 2020 and restarted production in May 2020. As of now, it has five B737-7s ready for delivery alongside 384 B737-8s, twenty-seven B737-8-200s, three B737-8(BBJ)s, forty-five B737-9s, and four B737-10s.