Flydubai finalises order for 175 Boeing 737 MAX planes

DUBAI, Dec 23 (Gulf News): Flydubai and Boeing on Friday finalised the order for 175 Boeing aircraft, making it the largest single-aisle order in the history of the Middle East.
The deal, including options for an additional 50 aircraft, is valued at up to $27 billion at current list prices, and follows order announcement made by flydubai at the Dubai Air Show in November for 225 aircraft.
More than tripling the Dubai budget carrier's current fleet of 61 aircraft, this order will see flydubai operating a range of the MAX 8, MAX 9 and MAX 10 aircraft types for future growth.
The airline will receive the first aircraft of this order in 2019, with the rest of the deliveries scheduled to continue from then until 2029.
The order also pushes total MAX orders above 4,200, Boeing said in a statement on Friday, adding that the all-Boeing operator, flydubai, first ordered the 737 MAX in 2013 purchasing 75 of those jets. Flydubai took delivery of five of those aircraft this year. This year alone, the 737 MAX has racked up 640 net orders, according to Boeing.
Flydubai's chief executive Gaith Al Gaith said in a statement that this is the airline's largest order in its eight-year history and third with Boeing.
"[These] aircraft have given us the ability to carry 44 million passengers since we began operations. With up to 296 aircraft on order, we have become one of the world's top ten airlines in terms of order backlog and we look forward to continuing to enhance the connectivity of Dubai's aviation hub," he said.