Reports suggest that airlines are leasing 30-year-old planes to replace the grounded Boeing 737 Max fleet. One industry expert compared older plants to “gold dust,” due to their increase in value.
According to a report by CNBC, airlines around the world are pulling decades-old aircraft out of retirement to replace the grounded Boeing 737 Max fleet. The Boeing 737 Max fleet was grounded by various nations around the world after they were involved in two fatal crashes.
In June, the FAA announced that they had diagnosed an additional safety issue with the Boeing 737 Max fleet. “On the most recent issue, the FAA’s process is designed to discover and highlight potential risks. The FAA recently found a potential risk that Boeing must mitigate,” the FAA said in the statement in June. “The FAA will lift the aircraft’s prohibition order when we deem it is safe to do so.”
“Used 800s are like gold dust at the moment,” Phil Seymour, CEO of a London-based aerospace consulting firm, said in a brief comment to CNBC. Seymour was referring to an older model Boeing plane. The Boeing 737-800s, one of the older models that has been rented by airlines, have increased in value by approximately 40 percent.
Colm Barrington, CEO of Fly Leasing, says that many older planes are in high-demand after the grounding of the 737 Max fleet. “Fly has already leased all of its B737s this year so we don’t have any available,” Barrington said, “Based on airline inquires, we are seeing strong demand for B737-800s in particular, which is likely to be reflected in higher re-lease rates for the type this year.”
Breitbart News reported in May that Boeing decided to offer a crucial warning light indicator as an optional add-on feature for the doomed 737 Max fleet. Breitbart News reported this week that a cybersecurity expert uncovered important code for the 737 and 787 aircraft lines on a publically-accessible Boeing server.
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