BERLIN – Latvian Charter and ACMI carrier SmartLynx Airlines announced the signing of an agreement to lease two Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
The deal was signed with the Irish leasing company SMBC Aviation Capital.
In a press release SmartLynx Airlines CEO Zygimantas Surintas said “As SmartLynx Airlines continues to modernize its fleet, there’s no doubt that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 is the right aircraft for us, and we were pleased to work with SMBC to make it happen,”
SmartLynx is the operator of an all-Airbus fleet, operating a fleet of A320, A321, and A330 aircraft. These are the first Boeing aircraft to be added to the fleet since the retirement of its Boeing 767-300 in 2009.
The MAX marks a significant upgrade to the fleet. According to Richardo Caver, Boeing’s vice president of commercial sales & marketing in Europe, Israel & Turkey, the 737 MAX “will help SmartLynx’s customers reduce their operating costs by cutting fuel consumption and lowering noise and CO2 emissions”.
The carrier has been operating an all-Airbus fleet since the 2010s.