Story ID: 50NMBoeingSpiceJet
India’s SpiceJet Increases Boeing 737 Max Order
By: Neelam Mathews
Caption: India's SpiceJet Confirms Larger Boeing 737 Max Order
Word Count: 244
India’s SpiceJet has confirmed an order for 42 of Boeing’s new 737 Max 8 narrrowbodies. The $4.4 billion deal was previously logged as being for an unidentified customer by Boeing and was announced on Wednesday at the India Aviation show in Hyderabad. It includes changes to previously announced business.

The contract builds on a deal signed by SpiceJet in 2010 when it ordered twenty five 737 NGs, with deliveries to start next year. Now SpiceJet has converted 12 of these to the new Max 8 model, featuring the more fuel-efficient CFM International Leap 1-B engine, adding to the 30 Max 8s that it already has on order. Currently, the SpiceJet fleet comprises 15 Bombardier Q400s and 43 Boeing 737-900ER/800s, with four more expected to be delivered by December.

“SpiceJet greatly values the ties we have built over the years with Boeing. Boeing Next-Generation 737s, the mainstay of the fleet ever since SpiceJet started operations, have vindicated our choice by their endurance, reliability and cost effectiveness,” said S.L. Narayanan, group CFO for SpiceJet parent company The Sun Group. “The induction of Boeing 737 Max will further modernize our fleet and ensure that we operate the most efficient fleet well into the future.”

“The order is a tremendous endorsement of the 737 Max’s unsurpassed fuel efficiency,” said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president of Asia Pacific and India sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which has recently met with much sales success in the Asia-Pacific region.