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Southwest adds more MAX 7s, converts some to -8s

Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) has increased its B737 MAX backlog by firming ten B737-7 options, while also converting four earlier -7 order into B737-8s.

The low-cost carrier revealed in its annual earnings release that the four converted orders would be delivered in 2023. In turn, the ten newly firmed -7 commitments are due in 2024.

Following the adjustments, the airline has a firm order for 427 B737 MAX, including 192 -7s and 235 -8s. It also has a further 137 options. Southwest stressed that it had the flexibility to move both the firm orders and options between the -7s and -8s.

The LCC expects significant MAX deliveries in 2023. Although the official delivery forecast anticipates as many as thirty-one -7s and 105 -8s due, Southwest Airlines said it expects only around 100 aircraft to arrive this year "due to Boeing's supply chain challenges and the current status of the -7 certification".

The 2023 plan includes 46 aircraft overdue from 2022, including fourteen -7s and thirty-two -8s. The smaller...

Boeing pleads not guilty during B737 MAX arraignment

Boeing (BOE, Washington National) has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud federal regulators relating to two B737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people.

During a three-hour arraignment in the District Court for the Northern District of Texas on January 26, Boeing's chief aerospace safety officer, Mike Delaney, entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of the manufacturer, according to multiple news reports.

Boeing is accused of conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about the safety of a critical automated flight control system called the Maneuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that played a significant role in causing the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019. Boeing's B737 MAX chief technical pilot, Mark A. Forkner, was charged with fraud for having misled the regulator while working on the aircraft certification, but he was acquitted of all charges on March 23, 2022.

In January 2021, Boeing had admitted to the conspiracy in a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with...

Aeroflot may write off half its current fleet by 2030

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