SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The fifth-largest air carrier in the United States Alaska Airlines is planning to buy 200 new aircraft, including the ill-fated Boeing 737 MAX, in the next 10 years, an internal notice to the company's pilots showed.
The Seattle Times newspaper on Friday quoted the notice as saying that the airlines has told its pilots that two 737 MAX simulators have been bought for their training, which would be put to use in June and the end of this year, respectively.
The 737 MAX has been grounded across the world since last March after two such airplanes crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia in two separate fatal incidents that killed 346 people.
U.S. federal aviation regulators have not indicated when the grounded 737 MAX would return to service as a certification flight has been delayed until April 2020.
The Seattle daily said the 737 MAX aircraft will constitute a significant part of Alaska Airlines' fleet, which will also include Airbus A321 jets that the company took over from an acquisition deal with Virgin America in 2016.
