Boeing and American Airlines have successfully completed the first landing gear exchange on a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft under Boeing’s Landing Gear Exchange Program. The milestone marks the first time the existing exchange program, already used across other Boeing aircraft types, has been extended to the 737 MAX family.

Instead of carrying out a lengthy overhaul of landing gear removed from an aircraft, the program allows an operator to receive overhauled and certified assemblies that are ready for installation. The aim is to reduce aircraft downtime while also limiting the need for airlines to maintain costly spare landing gear assemblies in inventory.

For the American Airlines exchange, Boeing supplied overhauled and certified main and nose landing gear assemblies together with the required installation kits. Wheels, tires and brakes were not included. According to Boeing, the first exchange also served to validate the entire process, from technical overhaul and documentation to delivery and installation on the aircraft.

“This milestone reinforces what our customers have known for years: Boeing’s Landing Gear Exchange capability delivers predictable, safe and cost-effective outcomes. Extending the program to the 737 MAX gives operators another proven tool to shorten downtime, manage costs and align heavy maintenance with operational needs,” said William Ampofo, senior vice president of Parts & Distribution and Supply Chain at Boeing Global Services.

The exchange model is based on a so-called forward exchange principle. The operator reserves an overhauled and certified assembly in advance and installs it on the aircraft, while Boeing manages the overhaul of the returned landing gear, incorporation of applicable service bulletins, certification and coordination with suppliers.

According to Boeing, this approach can reduce the risk of prolonged aircraft groundings while waiting for an overhaul to be completed and limit the amount of capital operators need to invest in their own spare assemblies. At the same time, it allows airlines to plan heavy maintenance activities and aircraft return-to-service times more accurately.

Boeing plans to further increase global landing gear overhaul capacity and work with certified MRO partners to expand the geographic availability of the program for the 737 MAX. Near-term priorities include increasing the number of MAX-compatible landing gear assemblies available for exchange, adding forward-exchange slots closer to customer operations and tracking data related to aircraft downtime and maintenance costs.

According to Boeing, completion of the first exchange with American Airlines confirms that the existing Landing Gear Exchange Program model can also be applied to the latest generation of Boeing single-aisle aircraft.