TUI Group has taken delivery of its maiden B737-8 following the handing over of OO-MAX (msn 44588) to its TUI fly (Belgium) (TB, Brussels National) unit on Monday, January 29.

TUI said in a statement the twinjet will be positioned to its Brussels National base this week ahead of its commercial debut in February.

Inclusive of this aircraft, the German tour operator has a total of fifty-two B737 MAX 8s and eighteen MAX 10s on order from Boeing (BOE, Washington National). Group CEO Friedrich Joussen told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that TUI would likely firm up a further twenty of its fifty outstanding MAX options.

"We have placed firm orders for seventy B737 MAX aircraft. I think it would make sense to take a total of ninety," he said. "In the coming months, we will look at whether and how we will continue exchanges and modernisations."

By the end of 2018, a total of nine B737 MAX 8 will be delivered to the Group's constituent airlines namely TUI fly (Belgium), TUI fly Nordic, TUI Airways, and TUI fly (Netherlands). TUI fly (Germany) is scheduled to add its first MAX 8 in early 2019.