United buys 25 additional Boeing 737 Max jets in vote of confidence in the planes

United is buying 25 additional Boeing 737 Max planes and taking delivery of other orders earlier than previously planned as it prepares for a recovery in travel demand, the carrier said Monday. “As we plan for the future and the return of demand, we’ve been looking at ways to best position our fleet for the recovery and be in a position to best take advantage of people’s desire to travel,” Andrew Nocella, United’s chief commercial officer, said in a note to staff. In addition to the 25 Boeing 737 Max planes that are slated for delivery in 2023, the airline said it moved up the delivery of 40 other Max jets to 2022 and five others to 2023. In total, United has firm commitments for 188 Maxes, according to a securities filing Monday. The vote of confidence in the jetliner comes just months after the FAA lifted its ban on the planes following two deadly crashes. United, which had 14 Boeing Max 9 jets in its fleet at the time of the March 2019 grounding, started receiving the planes from Boeing again in December, the first carrier to do so. It started commercial flights with those jets last month.<br/>