Macquarie AirFinance Unveiled As Customer That Ordered 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8s In July
Macquarie AirFinance now has 70 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft on order.
On September 2, 2025, Boeing and Macquarie AirFinance have announced that the aircraft lessor, part of the Australia-based Macquarie Group, ordered 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. With the latest purchase, which is the lessor’s second direct order with the plane maker, its 737 MAX 8 backlog has grown to 70 aircraft.
Its previous 737 MAX 8 order came during the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2024, when it placed its first direct order with the manufacturer for 20 737 MAX 8s. The remaining 20 narrowbody aircraft of the type came from a deal with the now-defunct Kuwait-based lessor ALAFCO, which was finalized in January 2023.
Then, Macquarie AirFinance acquired 53 aircraft, as well as an order book for 20 737 MAX 8s for $2.2 billion. The Ireland-registered company followed up that deal with one more acquisition from ALAFCO in February 2024, when it paid another $1.1 billion for 23 of the Kuwaiti lessor’s aircraft, with the two transactions totaling 76 aircraft and the 20 737 MAX 8s that have been on order from Boeing.
“Lessor orders for the 737 MAX now account for nearly one-quarter of the total order book for the airplane family,” the manufacturer said, with Brad McMullen, the Senior Vice President of Commercial Sales and Marketing at Boeing, adding that lessors have been “an important partner to Boeing and global carriers in providing financial solutions that expand single-aisle fleets.”
As of July 31, 2025, Boeing had secured 373 gross orders for the 737 MAX, including 262 aircraft from unidentified customers, of which one customer ordered 119 aircraft. The number does not include the recently announced Korean Air order, when the airline announced its intent to order 103 aircraft, including 50 737 MAX 10s, on August 25, 2025.
The latter order coincided with Lee Jae Myung, the President of South Korea, visiting the United States in an attempt to negotiate lower tariffs with the Trump administration. Korean Air’s order agreement was signed during the South Korea-US roundtable “Partnership for a Manufacturing Renaissance,” presided over by Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce of the US, and Kim Jung-kwan, the Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) of South Korea.
Other 737 MAX customers with fresh gross orders in 2025 include Alaska Airlines (12), Saudi Arabia’s AviLease (20), BOC Aviation (70), Japan Airlines (17), and WestJet (seven). The 373-strong 737 MAX order number as of July 2025 had outpaced 2024’s result. As of July 31, 2024, Boeing had secured 158 orders for its narrowbody jet, including the aforementioned 20 aircraft ordered by Macquarie AirFinance and American Airlines signing up for 85 737 MAX 10s.
Boeing finished 2024 with a total of 415 gross orders for the 737 MAX, with Pegasus Airlines, American Airlines, and Avia Solutions Group (ASG) being responsible for the largest known orders with 100, 85, and 40 units, respectively. An unidentified customer bought 54 737 MAXs in September 2024.
