Delta to buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX 10 planes

FARNBOROUGH, England July 18 (Reuters): Delta Air Lines will buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets worth about $13.5 billion at list prices and has options to buy another 30, the US carrier said on Monday.
Boeing shares were up 4 per cent in premarket trading in New York on the announcement, while Delta was up 2 per cent.
Delta, which made the announcement at the Farnborough Airshow, said it would start taking MAX 10 deliveries in 2025. Delta previously was the only major US airline without a MAX in its fleet or on order. The MAX was grounded for 20 months after two fatal crashes killed 346 people. The grounding was lifted in November 2020 after software and training updates.
"This is a huge testament to the value of the MAX," said Boeing senior vice president of commercial sales and marketing Ihssane Mounir at a signing event. "What an endorsement from a world-class airline."
Boeing has had "strong demand" for the MAX since the ungrounding, with over 1,000 gross orders and 1.7 million flight hours, Boeing's Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal said.
With the new order, Delta's Boeing 737 fleet will expand to more than 300 total aircraft and will be its second-largest fleet family behind the Airbus A320.
Reuters separately reported a top-up order from Delta for around a dozen Airbus A220s is set to be signed as soon as Tuesday at the air show.
Boeing faces a December deadline to win approval for the 737 MAX 10 - the largest member of its best-selling single-aisle airplane family. Otherwise, it must meet new cockpit alerting requirements under a 2020 law, unless Congress waives it.