Indonesia's Lion Air has confirmed its earlier commitment for the Boeing 737 Max, signing a firm order for 201 of the re-engined twinjets at the Singapore Airshow and becoming a launch customer for the -9 variant.
The airline has also ordered an additional 29 Boeing 737-900ERs in a combined deal for 230 aircraft worth $22.4 billion. Purchase rights have also been secured for an additional 150 aircraft.
Speaking at the show, Boeing's vice-president of sales for Asia-Pacific and India, Dinesh Keskar, said the deal makes Lion Air the global launch operator for the 737 Max 9, which is the largest of the three variants.
© Boeing
"The deal includes 737-8s and -9s. The aircraft will be delivered from 2017 and the first aircraft will be either 737-9s - for which Lion Air will be the first customer globally - or -8s for which the airline will be the first operator in Asia."
The confirmation of the Lion Air 737 Max deal, which was first announced last year, takes the total orders for the CFM International Leap-1B powered twinjet from three operators - Lion Air (201), Southwest Airlines (150), and Norwegian (100) - to 451. Total commitments stand at over 1,000 from 15 customers, said Boeing.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
