Norwegian to acquire six Boeing 737 Max aircraft via lease

Norway-based low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Air Lease Corporation (ALC) to lease six Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft, to be delivered for the upcoming peak travel season.

According to Norwegian, ALC will deliver the jets shortly, giving the airline plenty of time to prepare for the summer 2023 season. However, the “agreement is subject to certain closing conditions,” Norwegian stated in a press release issued on February 6, 2023.

“The addition of these modern and fuel-efficient aircraft fits well with our fleet strategy. It will also help counteract delays from Boeing for other aircraft that were due to be delivered to Norwegian this spring,” stated Geir Karlsen, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Norwegian.

Ex-Flyr 737 MAXs?
The six Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will join three other jets of the type currently operated by the airline.

But could the six new 737 MAXs have previously been operated by Flyr, another Norway-based carrier that declared bankruptcy on February 1, 2023? According to planespotters.net data, the now-bankrupt airline had six Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, all of which were leased from ALC.

Flyr also operated six Boeing 737-800 NextGeneration (NG) aircraft. Five have left Oslo Gardermoen Airport (OSL), except for LN-FGD which stayed at the airport in the Norwegian capital. Except for LN-FHG, which flew for the last time under Flyr’s banner on January 9, 2023, the 737 MAXs have been at OSL since their last flights on January 30, 2023.

In total, Norwegian has 71 Boeing 737 aircraft, including the NG and MAX. According to its latest traffic report from January 2023, the low-cost carrier operated 62 aircraft during the month.