MAX 8 Gives Boeing A Strong Farnborough Start

An USD$8.78 billion order for 737s from India’s Jet Airways rounded out a strong start for Boeing on the first day of the Farnborough Airshow in England on Monday.

The firm order for an additional 75 737 MAX 8s was signed earlier, but had been posted on Boeing’s order website as from an unidentified customer. Jet received its first 737 MAX 8 last month, from a previous order for the aircraft.

Boeing had started the announcement flurry first thing with an order from shipper DHL for 14 777 freighters, worth USD$4.75 billion at list prices. The agreement includes purchase rights for an additional seven 777Fs.

That was followed by a USD$3.5 billion list price order for 30 737 MAX 8s from lessor Jackson Square Aviation. The order, which was also initially unidentified on Boeing's website, makes the lessor the 100th 737 MAX customer.

Next up on the announcement conveyor belt was a Qatar Airways firm order for five additional 777 freighters in a deal valued at USD$1.7 billion at current list prices.

United Airlines added to its already large Dreamliner order book with an additional four 787-9s, worth USD$1.1 billion. The previously agreed order was also attributed to an unnamed customer. The order takes United’s total to 55 787s.

Romanian airline Tarom was next on the podium to announce an order for five 737 MAX 8s in a previously agreed deal worth USD$586 million at list prices.

Goshawk Aviation mirrored its Airbus order for A320neos announced at Farnborough with an agreement for 20 737 MAX 8s. The deal was agreed prior to the Airshow and announced today.

Boeing’s bulging order book for the 737 MAX family of aircraft was added to with its final deal of the day, a 15-plane order for MAX 8s by Brazilian airline GOL. As part of the deal, GOL also converted 30 existing MAX orders to the MAX 10, the largest of the updated 737 MAX family.