Boeing and American Airlines have completed the first landing gear exchange on a 737 MAX in Plano, Texas, extending Boeing’s landing gear exchange programme to the MAX family. The work used fully overhauled, Boeing-certified main and nose landing gear assemblies delivered ready to install, giving the airline a faster maintenance option and reducing the need to hold spare parts in inventory.
The exchange model has already been used on other Boeing aircraft families and now forms part of the manufacturer’s Global Services and parts support offering for the 737 MAX. Under the programme, airlines can install the replacement assemblies themselves or through their maintenance teams, while the removed gear returns to Boeing for overhaul at a maintenance facility.
Boeing is also expanding overhaul capacity with certified maintenance, repair and overhaul partners and increasing inventory availability closer to customer bases. For operators, the arrangement is intended to support heavier maintenance planning while easing logistics pressure and limiting aircraft downtime.