Replacing each Boeing 737 MAX plane to cost airlines $250,000 per month
Airlines around the world are starting to assess the financial impact of this week’s grounding of the Boeing Co. 737 Max jetliner, following the second deadly crash of the plane model in five months.
Securing used aircraft to replace the grounded planes would cost about $250,000 a plane each month, said George Ferguson, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. For Southwest Airlines Co., the biggest buyer of the revamped single-aisle workhorse, that would mean an extra cost of around $8.5 million for its 737 Max fleet of 34 planes.
But the world doesn’t have enough used or parked planes to replace more than 350 grounded Max jets, and airlines are likely to press Boeing for compensation. Ferguson estimates a cost to Boeing of at least $100 million a month just from reimbursing carriers.
