FARNBOROUGH, England — Boeing clinched the first big deal of this year’s Farnborough Airshow on Monday with a firm order from Air Lease for 75 of its redesigned 737 aircraft worth $7.2 billion.
The order is a big win for the Chicago-based company at the opening of the week-long airshow, south of London, and is the first order for the MAX, a new version of its best-selling 737 aircraft, by a leasing company.
“They are an ideal partner to help establish the 737 MAX in the leasing market,” said Ray Conner, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive.
The MAX incorporates new technologies designed to make the aircraft more efficient, reliable and comfortable. So far, Boeing has secured orders and commitments for more than 1,000 of the aircraft.
Los Angeles-based Air Lease, which buys planes and leases them to airlines, also has the right to purchase a further 25 planes. The order will take several years to deliver. ALC has ordered a total of 170 airplanes from Boeing. Although the order has a list price of $7.2 billion, purchasers rarely pay the full price for an order of this size.
“The 737 MAX is an excellent addition to our portfolio and the ideal complement to our growing fleet of Next-Generation 737-800s,” said Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman and chief executive of Air Lease. “The 737 MAX represents a step-change improvement that our airline clients need to compete in the future.”
Expectations are high that Boeing will clinch a raft of deals for the plane as it tries to catch up with Airbus in orders for single-aisle aircraft. Airbus, which is a subsidiary of EADS, won the battle for orders at last year’s Paris Airshow — Paris and Farnborough alternate.
So far, the only deal Airbus has announced at Farnborough is the sale of four A321neos to Arkia Israeli Airlines, the second biggest Israeli airline. The order, which has a list value of around $450 million, makes the airline a new Airbus customer and the first airline in Israel to order the A320 neo family.
