LONDON – ALC has announced and confirmed that they have reached a new deal with Aeromexico for nine new 737 aircraft. The deal consists of two 737 MAX 8 and seven 737 MAX 9 aircraft.

These planes are scheduled to be delivered from July of this year until August of next year, from ALC’s orders with Boeing.

ALC-Aeromexico Relationship Expanded…

“Air Lease Corporation is Aeromexico’s largest lessor, and we are pleased to further our relationship with the airline with these nine new Boeing 737 aircraft lease placements,” said Steven Udvar-Házy, Executive Chairman of Air Lease Corporation.

“The 737 offers the most modern, fuel-efficient technology to enhance the global capabilities of Mexico’s premier airline.”

“Aeromexico is delighted once again to partner with ALC to help modernize our fleet with new fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly Boeing aircraft in 2022 and 2023,” said Dr. Andres Conesa, CEO of Aeromexico.

These aircraft are expected to help Aeromexico with the growing demand for air travel. Now that the pandemic is (legally) over, more people are taking the plane for their vacation, now that it is possible again.

Coincidentally, this deal coincides with the call from the airlines from the United States to end the mask mandate on flights.

This may mean that Aeromexico, and many other airlines, can expect a huge number of passengers, traveling via Mexico City to other destinations in the list of Aeromexico.

Moving Away from Chapter 11…

Before Aeromexico entered the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Aeromexico had set its eyes on renewing its fleet, with planes from either Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer, with the modernization also including their Aeromexico Connect fleet, which consists of Embraer E1s.

However, them entering Chapter 11 certainly didn’t help the situation, as that halted their progress. But now that they’re done with it, they are willing to invest over $5 billion in renewing and modernizing their fleet.

However, as with everything in the airline industry, nothing is risk-free.

The current crisis in Ukraine has certainly not helped the fuel prices, which Aeromexico probably would’ve profited more from it if the fuel prices remained low.

Of course, they could always rely upon the oil that has been drilled out from the Gulf of Mexico, but that won’t solve the issue for a long period of time.

Work to do on Safety Record…

Another issue is that as we’ve mentioned earlier, Aeromexico (and every other airliner based in Mexico) has been rated by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) as a category 2 airline, which means that their safety record isn’t too favorable.

This rating means that Aeromexico is not able to add new routes to and from the United States, despite them having newer and younger aircraft in their fleet.

While this isn’t that big a deal for them, as they’ve got a pretty extensive network already, it would certainly mean that they have got to do something in order to regain their category 1 status back.