{"id":25890946,"date":"2026-10-01T09:58:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/westjet-boeing-737-700-retirement-ftai-27-aircraft-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:49:14","slug":"westjet-boeing-737-700-retirement-ftai-27-aircraft-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/westjet-boeing-737-700-retirement-ftai-27-aircraft-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"WestJet Starts Retiring the Boeing 737-700: 27 Jets Go to FTAI"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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On 28 September 2026 it started getting rid of them, and it did so in the same week the aeroplane meant to replace them lost its certification date.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The mechanism is an agreement with FTAI Aviation covering 27 aircraft. Seventeen go in a sale-and-leaseback, meaning WestJet sells them and keeps flying them for a while. Ten are bought outright off lease and will be worth more to FTAI in pieces than whole. WestJet&rsquo;s own description of the deal is the useful line: this is the start of the retirement of the 737-700 fleet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>That is a quietly significant sentence for an airline whose entire identity was once a single aircraft type flown very cheaply out of Calgary.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:28px 0;font-size:15px;line-height:1.75\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>The deal<\/strong> &mdash; FTAI Aviation is taking 27 WestJet Boeing 737-700s, announced 28 September 2026: 17 on sale-and-leaseback, 10 bought outright off lease.<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>What WestJet calls it<\/strong> &mdash; the start of the retirement of its 737-700 fleet. No end date has been published.<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Fleet position<\/strong> &mdash; Aviation Week&rsquo;s fleet database lists 27 WestJet 737-700s in service with a further six inactive.<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Where they go<\/strong> &mdash; the 17 leased aircraft into an FTAI aircraft-leasing vehicle; the 10 outright purchases feed FTAI&rsquo;s CFM56-7B engine and module business.<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>The replacement<\/strong> &mdash; the Boeing 737 MAX 10, part of a 2025 order for 60 MAX 10s and seven 787-9s, the largest Boeing order ever placed by a Canadian carrier.<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>The complication<\/strong> &mdash; on 28 September 2026 the FAA delayed MAX 10 certification over a newly disclosed software issue.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The aeroplane that built the airline<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>WestJet took its first 737-700 in 2001, moving from second-hand 737-200s to a brand-new Next Generation fleet. For most of the two decades that followed, a 737-700 was simply what a WestJet aeroplane was: one aisle, two CFM56s, short enough runways to reach the places where the airline grew, and cheap enough per cycle to undercut the incumbent.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The fleet has moved on. Today the mainline operation runs 737-800s and MAX 8s, with 787-9s on long haul and a 2025 order for 60 MAX 10s and seven more 787-9s, the largest Boeing order ever placed by a Canadian airline. In that company the 737-700 is the odd one out: the smallest cabin, the oldest airframes, and the worst seat-mile cost of anything on the line.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/westjet-boeing-737-700-c-gwbx-departing-boston.jpg\" alt=\"WestJet Boeing 737-700 C-GWBX departing Boston\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">WestJet 737-700 C-GWBX departing Boston in June 2025. Aviation Week lists 27 of the type in service with WestJet, plus six inactive. Photo: 4300streetcar \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Chief executive Alexis von Hoensbroech has been plain that there was no fixed retirement date before this, and that softer transborder demand and higher fuel costs moved the decision forward. That is the honest version of what usually gets written up as fleet simplification.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re pleased to partner with FTAI Aviation Ltd. to make this happen, and we look forward to building on this relationship for future opportunities.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Mike Scott<\/strong> &mdash; Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, WestJet (company statement, 28 September 2026)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Why a lessor wants 27 twenty-year-old 737s<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>FTAI is not buying these aircraft because it is short of narrowbodies. It is buying them because of what is hanging under the wings.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The CFM56-7B is still the most widely installed engine on the planet, and the global shop-visit queue for it is long. FTAI&rsquo;s aerospace products business sells engines and modules on exchange, which means it needs a steady supply of serviceable hardware it controls outright. Ten off-lease 737-700s is a supply of exactly that, with an airframe attached that it may or may not bother to fly again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;We are pleased to expand our relationship with WestJet through this transaction.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>David Moreno<\/strong> &mdash; President, FTAI Aviation (company statement, 28 September 2026)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The seventeen sale-and-leaseback aircraft are a different trade: WestJet converts them into cash and keeps the capacity while it waits for new aeroplanes. Those are the ones that will carry passengers in WestJet colours for a while yet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WRSDejJggIw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The cabin tour above is a reasonable record of what is going away: a single-aisle interior from the start of the century, built when a 737-700 was the modern option rather than the one at the back of the fleet list.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The gap that has just got wider<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Retiring an aeroplane is only half a plan. The other half is the one arriving, and WestJet has said it expects its first 737-10 around the end of 2026.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>On the same week as the FTAI announcement, the FAA said it was delaying certification of the MAX 10 after a newly disclosed software issue. The variant had finished certification flight testing earlier in the year, so this is a late problem rather than an early one, but a delay is a delay. Boeing shares fell sharply on the news.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/westjet-boeing-737-max-8-c-fnax.jpg\" alt=\"WestJet Boeing 737 MAX 8 C-FNAX on the runway\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A WestJet 737 MAX 8. The larger MAX 10, not this variant, is the aircraft earmarked to replace the 737-700s, and its certification slipped on 28 September. Photo: Anna Zvereva \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This is where the sale-and-leaseback structure stops looking like financial engineering and starts looking like sensible planning. Seventeen 737-700s that WestJet still operates are seventeen aircraft that can keep flying schedules if the MAX 10 is late. Had the airline simply sold all 27 and walked away, a certification slip would have become a capacity hole.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ca39kaMqXQY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What it means for the 737 Classic and NG market<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>WestJet is not alone. Across the industry the smallest Next Generation variants are being squeezed out first, because they carry the fewest passengers for roughly the same crew, fuel burn and maintenance bill as a 737-800. The engines keep their value. The airframes, increasingly, do not.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>So the 737-700s will scatter. Some will fly on with leisure and charter operators who want a small jet with good runway performance and do not care about the last few per cent of fuel burn. Some will be stripped in the desert so that a 737-800 somewhere else can keep its engines on wing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Neither outcome is dramatic. But it is the end of the aeroplane that turned a small Calgary start-up into Canada&rsquo;s second-largest airline, and it begins on a week when its replacement is not yet legal to deliver.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: FTAI Aviation release via GlobeNewswire, 28 September 2026; AviTrader, 28 September 2026; Aviation Week, 28 September 2026; CNBC and Bloomberg reporting on the FAA MAX 10 delay, 28 September 2026; WestJet fleet and order announcements. Both quotations are as issued by the companies.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>How many Boeing 737-700s is WestJet retiring?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The agreement announced on 28 September 2026 covers 27 aircraft: 17 in a sale-and-leaseback and 10 bought outright. WestJet describes it as the start of the retirement of the type rather than the end of it, and has not published a completion date.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who is buying the WestJet 737-700s?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">FTAI Aviation. The 17 sale-and-leaseback aircraft go into one of its aircraft-leasing vehicles, while the 10 off-lease aircraft feed its aerospace products business, which supplies CFM56-7B engines and modules to operators.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why is WestJet retiring the 737-700 now?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Chief executive Alexis von Hoensbroech has pointed to softer transborder demand and higher fuel costs as reasons to accelerate. The 737-700 is the smallest and least efficient jet in a mainline fleet otherwise built around 737-800s, MAX 8s and 787-9s.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is replacing the WestJet 737-700?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Boeing 737 MAX 10, from WestJet&amp;rsquo;s 2025 order for 60 MAX 10s and seven 787-9s. WestJet has said it expects its first 737-10 around the end of 2026, which depends on the aircraft being certified.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Is the Boeing 737 MAX 10 certified?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Not yet. On 28 September 2026 the FAA said certification would be delayed after a newly disclosed software issue, the same week as the FTAI agreement. The MAX 10 completed certification flight testing earlier in 2026.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>When did WestJet start flying the 737-700?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">WestJet took its first Boeing 737 Next Generation, a 737-700, in 2001. The type carried the airline through its growth from a western Canadian low-cost operator into a national carrier with transatlantic widebodies.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What happens to a retired 737-700?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Some keep flying on lease with other operators, often in leisure or charter work. Others are parted out, because a serviceable CFM56-7B engine or module is frequently worth more than the airframe wrapped around it.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Can I fly in a fighter jet with MiGFlug?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. MiGFlug arranges civilian fighter jet flights in types such as the L-39 Albatros and the MiG-29, with a full briefing and a pilot alongside you. Current aircraft, locations and prices are listed on the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/flights-prices\/\">flights and prices page<\/a>.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many Boeing 737-700s is WestJet retiring?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The agreement announced on 28 September 2026 covers 27 aircraft: 17 in a sale-and-leaseback and 10 bought outright. WestJet describes it as the start of the retirement of the type rather than the end of it, and has not published a completion date.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who is buying the WestJet 737-700s?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"FTAI Aviation. 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Current aircraft, locations and prices are listed on the flights and prices page.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/boeing-737-max-10-certification-delayed-faa-software-go-around-2026\/\">Boeing 737 MAX 10 Certification on Hold: FAA Waits on Software Fix<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/westjet-cabin-crew-strike-grounds-mainline-fleet-august-2026\/\">WestJet Grounds Its Entire Mainline Fleet<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/lufthansa-group-20-boeing-737-max-10-order-2026\/\">Lufthansa Orders 20 Boeing 737 MAX 10 to Replace Airbus Jets<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/boeing-737-max-7-max-10-certification-flight-tests-complete\/\">Boeing&rsquo;s Baby and Giant 737s Pass the Test<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story WestJet was built on the Boeing 737-700. On 28 September 2026 it started getting rid of them, and it did so in the same week the aeroplane meant to replace them lost its certification date. The mechanism is an agreement with FTAI Aviation covering 27 aircraft. Seventeen go in a sale-and-leaseback, meaning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":25890453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25890946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>WestJet 737-700 Retirement Begins: 27 Jets | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"WestJet has begun its Boeing 737-700 retirement, selling 27 jets to FTAI Aviation, in the same week the FAA delayed 737 MAX 10 certification.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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