United Airlines has marked a significant milestone by becoming the first airline in the world to operate a fleet of over 1,000 aircraft. The latest addition is a Boeing 737 MAX 9, registered as N77584, which was delivered earlier this week. This aircraft is set to fly from King County International Airport, known as Boeing Field, to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport later today.
The delivery of this new plane follows its customer acceptance flight on January 24th. During this flight, the aircraft departed from Boeing Field and flew across Olympic National Park and southern Washington State before returning to Seattle. The plane is equipped with CFM International LEAP-1B engines and features seating for 20 passengers in United First class and 159 in economy.
This delivery is part of a sale-leaseback agreement between Aviation Capital Group and United Airlines. The new aircraft will support United’s operations as it introduces flights to several new destinations this year, including Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and Nuuk Airport in Greenland.
United Airlines plans to operate around 360 destinations this summer with approximately 800 daily flights to 147 international locations. The airline expects further deliveries of widebody jets and narrowbodies throughout the decade, with around 680 aircraft still on order.
American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are close behind United in terms of fleet size. American Airlines currently operates 997 planes with more than 320 on order, while Delta has about 985 planes with around 300 additional jets ordered for its mainline fleet.
