Boeing nabs 50 Max sales in airshow
Dubai, UAE - Boeing Co secured orders for 50 737 Max narrowbody planes, padding its tally at the Dubai Airshow while building momentum for the grounded aircraft ahead of its potential return to the skies in coming weeks.
Kazakhstan’s Air Astana signed a letter of intent for 30 jets, Boeing announced on Tuesday, while an undisclosed customer bought 20, according to a person familiar with the matter. The orders come after SunExpress of Turkey purchased ten planes, giving a total value of about US$7.5bn at list prices.
“This was a tendered competition we fought hard for and won,” Stan Deal, the new head of Boeing’s jetliner business, said of the Air Astana order. The sale will be especially welcome since the Central Asian carrier is an established customer for Airbus SE’s rival A320neo.
Business for the Max has been sparse since the latest version of the storied 737 series was idled in March after two deadly crashes in five months. The A320neo, meanwhile, won a US$14bn, 120-plane order from Air Arabia at the Dubai show on Monday, followed by a US$1.3bn acquisition of 12 Neos by UK discounter EasyJet Plc.
Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd also told Bloomberg on
Monday that it was discussing an order for an undisclosed number of Max jets, though the trickle of orders can’t disguise the impact of the crisis surrounding the plane.
That was recently laid bare in data showing the A320 overtook the 737 by total orders for the first time in October, with 15,193 during the Airbus model’s lifetime versus 15,136 for its rival. The Boeing jet was more than 400 orders ahead at the end of last year. The 737, in service for longer, remains No 1 by deliveries, with about 10,500 shipped compared with just over 9,000 A320s.
Boeing is working with regulators to certify a fix to flight-automation software that was involved in both fatal disasters and has said it’s aiming for Federal Aviation Administration approval to return the Max to the skies by year-end.
In the meantime, customers for the troubled model are generally hedging their bets by declining to commit to firm orders. That was true of a blockbuster US$24bn deal for 200 planes announced by IAG SA at the Paris Air Show in June.
The British Airways parent affirmed deployment plans for the aircraft at an investor day this month while excluding them from a tally of future orders since deliveries aren’t due until 2023.
The Kazakh deal is particularly positive for the Max since Air Astana has been building its short-haul fleet around the A320neo. The company intends to take the Boeing planes from 2021 and deploy them at its FlyArystan low-cost unit. It may still add Airbus jets after studying the A321XLR for its longest routes.