Virgin Australia Holdings has announced it has converted orders for ten B737-8s to larger B737-10s, deliveries of which are due to begin from 2022.
Group Chief Financial Officer Geoff Smith said in an FY2018 earnings statement that the MAX 10's increased capacity would come in useful for slot-constrained airports at peak hours.
The Australian carrier group had firm orders with Boeing (BOE, Washington National) for forty MAX 8s as of July 31, 2018. Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) is due to take delivery of the first of the type in November 2019 and will thus become the type's Australian launch operator.
Virgin Australia is an existing B737 Family operator employing two B737-700s and eighty B737-800s. It also operates five B777-300(ER)s, six A330-200s, three A320-200s, seven ATR72-600s, and fourteen Fokker 100s.
