Irish low-cost airline Ryanair signed an agreement with the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing on the 3rd to purchase 75 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from Boeing. This is the first big order for Boeing to get on the model since it was grounded last March.
The total order price of these 75 passenger planes exceeds $9 billion, but airline operators generally get a large discount when actually paying. Neither Ryan nor Boeing disclosed the details of the terms of the order.
Ryan has previously ordered 135 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. At this point, Ryan ordered a total of 210 units.
Boeing expects to complete the delivery by December 2024. Ryan’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said that in five years, the proportion of Ryan’s fleet of 737MAX passenger planes will increase from 6% to one third.
Lion Air Indonesia and Ethiopian Airlines crashed a Boeing 737 MAX8 in October 2018 and last March, respectively, killing a total of 346 people. Subsequently, countries grounded 737 MAX passenger planes one after another. As a result, Boeing’s previous large number of orders for this model have been cancelled by customers, and the coronavirus epidemic has sharply reduced the global air passenger business, causing Boeing’s new aircraft orders to dive.
The Associated Press said that customers have cancelled orders for 448 Boeing 737 MAXs so far this year; Boeing is worried that it will be difficult to successfully collect and deliver another 782 orders for these models due to financial difficulties for airline operators.
Just the day before yesterday, an American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX flew to its passenger maintenance center on the 2nd with media reporters to build momentum for American Airlines’ commercial flights using the aircraft to resume at the end of December. After 20 months of grounding due to two air crashes, the FAA lifted the grounding order for Boeing 737 MAX in November.
Boeing shares surged 6% on the same day to close at $237.2, the highest closing price in nearly nine months, due to good news such as Ryan’s order.
