Editor’s note: The video above about Boeing posting a record full-year loss of $11.94 billion was originally published in January 2021.
United Airlines is expanding its order of Boeing 737 MAX airplanes and taking some deliveries sooner as it ramps up for an anticipated increase in travel demand.
Chief Operating Officer Andrew Nocella said in a memo on Monday that the company placed an order for 25 new 737 MAX aircraft for delivery in 2023.
United has also moved up delivery of 40 previously ordered 737 MAX planes to next year and five 737 MAX to 2023. That’s in addition to the 24 737 MAX aircraft the company is already set to receive in 2023.
Boeing delivered 21 737 MAX jets in January, most of which went to U.S. airlines. Boeing said Southwest took six MAX jets, American and United got five each, and Alaska Airlines received two.
The 737 MAX was re-certified for flight by the Federal Aviation Administration in November after being grounded in March 2019 following the crashes of a Lion Air flight near Jakarta on Oct. 29, 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019, killing a total of 346 people.
Investigators determined that the cause of the crashes was a faulty computer system that pushed the plane’s nose downward in flight and couldn’t be overridden by pilots.