USA: Southwest Airlines Celebrates 10,000th 737 Aircraft

Thousands of Boeing employees gathered at the company’s Renton, Washington factory to celebrate the 10,000th 737 to come off the production line.

With this airplane, a 737 MAX 8 for Southwest Airlines, the 737 has broken the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the most produced commercial jet aircraft model.

This incredible milestone is a testament to the work we do every day to build the most reliable and efficient single-aisle airplane in the world, said Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Kevin McAllister.

It represents more than 50 years of success and achievement on the part of thousands of Boeing employees past and present, our supplier partners, and our airline customers around the globe who put their confidence in the 737.

The 737 previously held this GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title in 2006 for the 5,000th airplane to come out of the Renton factory, a mark that took almost four decades to reach.

Due to growing market demand and higher production rates, the 737 program reached the 10,000th airplane milestone only 12 years later.

The speed at which Boeing achieved this new milestone is very impressive, said Michael Empric, official adjudicator for GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS.

We are excited to once again recognize the 737 and the important role it plays in commercial aviation.

Boeing will increase 737 production from the current rate of 47 airplanes per month to 52 airplanes per month later this year.

The 737 program has more than 4,600 airplanes still on order fueled by sales of the newest version of the 737, the 737 MAX.

737 Facts:

- A 737 takes off or lands every 1.5 seconds

- On average, more than 2,800 737s are in the air at any given time

- More than 22 billion people have flown on a 737

- The 737 has flown more than 122 billion miles, the equivalent of 5 million times around Earth



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Ryanair Places Firm Order For 10 Additional 737 MAX 200 Jets

European ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC), Ryanair, placed a firm order for 10 additional 737 MAX 200 jets Tuesday at the Paris Air Show, growing its order book to 110 737 MAX 200s with 100 additional purchase options.

Ryanair also has 65 Boeing 737-800s remaining on order and operates an all 737-800 fleet of 397 aircraft. The order is worth $1.1 billion at current list prices.

Ryanair was the launch customer back in 2014 for the 737 MAX 200, a nickname for the 737 MAX 8 certified for a high-density configuration of up to seats, though Ryanair will actually operate its MAX 200s with 197 seats to be precise, in a single-class configuration.

“We are pleased to announce this purchase of 10 additional Boeing 737 ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft, on top of our existing firm order for 100 737 MAXs, with a further 100 options remaining,” said Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Mick Hickey.

“This all-new MAX 737 aircraft has 8 more seats than our current 189 seat Boeing 737-800s and incorporates the latest technology engines and winglets, which reduces fuel consumption and noise emissions, ensuring we remain Europe’s greenest, cleanest airline. Ryanair is proud to partner with Boeing and has operated an all-Boeing fleet since 1994.”

“The 737 MAX with 197 seats provides Ryanair with the perfect solution for its additional capacity requirements as it strives to carry 200 million passengers per year by the middle of the next decade,” said Ihssane Mounir, senior vice president, Global Sales & Marketing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “The 737 family has been the foundation on which Ryanair has revolutionized low-cost travel in Europe and we are honored that this iconic operator continues to grow in partnership with Boeing.”

Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline, carrying 120 million passengers last year across 1,800 daily flights to more than 200 destinations.

It is the largest Boeing 737-800 customer in the world and is all but certain to order more 737 MAX jets as its MAX 200 order book is barely sufficient to replace a third of the existing fleet.

The carrier also tends to cycle aircraft in and out of its fleet very quickly (selling aircraft within 10-12 years of delivery), so it could very well have a need for 600+ 737 MAX jets when all is said and done, including replacement and growth.

The real question is whether Ryanair will opt for the larger 737 MAX 10, which Boeing launched on Day 1 of PAS 2017 with more than 240 orders from 10 customers.

The larger 737 MAX jet would offer the best operating economics in the Boeing 737 MAX family, and Ryanair certainly has enough high-volume routes at this point to be able to fill 100-150 737 MAX 10s profitably year-round.

The one caveat for Ryanair is that the 737 MAX 200 basically maximizes the number of passengers per flight attendant on its planes (each flight attendant can support a maximum of 50 passengers) while the 737 MAX 10 falls 20 short of that figure at a theoretical maximum single class capacity of 230 seats.

Perhaps in Ryanair’s economic modeling, that counts for more and as a result, the carrier is less enamored with the 737 MAX 10.

It could also be that Ryanair wants to maintain its single variant fleet with the 737-800 and then the MAX 8.

This, however, doesn’t make as much sense, as it will have to operate the 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 simultaneously for years, which defeats the purpose of a single variant offering (the MAX 8 and the MAX 10 are as similar as the MAX 8 and 737-800).

In the end, we do expect Ryanair to buy the 737 MAX 10, but it will not happen immediately.

Avolon Buys 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8s Plus Options For 50 More

Aircraft leasing company, Avolon, announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to purchase 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets Tuesday at the 2017 Paris Air Show.

The order also includes purchase options for an additional 50 737 MAX 8 jets and is worth $8.4 billion at list prices. Deliveries will begin in 2021.

Avolon already had outstanding orders for 10 737 MAX 8s and 10 737 MAX 9s. So this MoU once confirmed will grow its MAX order book to 95 frames in all, making it the fifth largest lessor customer of the MAX jet (edging out Aviation Capital Group who claimed that spot earlier Tuesday morning). Avolon also has an outstanding order for 20 Airbus A320neos placed back in December 2012.

The order was announced at a press conference by Ihssane Mounir, Boeing’s SVP of Global Sales & Marketing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Kevin McAllister, and Avolon CEO Dómhnal Slattery.

The relationship between Boeing and Avalon is very special, said McAllister. Today is a very special day, for an important reason.

Today Avolon will announce a memorandum of understanding for 75 737 MAX-8 plus options for 50 more. We are proud to play an important role in Avolon’s future.

Slattery added that Avolon, today with this MOU, is at 925 aircraft, which is extraordinary considering we didn’t exist 8 years ago. This is a super airplane, an airplane that we’ve believed in for a long time.

This order represents the single largest order that Avolon has placed with Boeing to date and underlines the scale of our ambition and the strength of our business.

Our strategy is to maintain an industry-leading portfolio of young, modern and fuel efficient aircraft.

We were pleased to deliver the world’s first ever 737 MAX 8 this year and the addition of a further 75 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft reflects our commitment to our customers to have a product offering built around the most technically advanced and efficient aircraft available in the market.

Slattery also said that the recently launched 737 MAX-10 looks like a real winner and Avolon will be taking a hard look at it.

Avolon’s MoU once confirmed will take the 737 MAX family over 4,000 firm orders, along with other orders announced at PAS.

By the same metric, Boeing now has won 909 orders from aircraft lessors for the 737 MAX against 1,136 for Airbus’ A320neo family including current MoUs.

PAS 2017 has helped Boeing close that gap from a deficit of 718 versus 1,024 prior to the show.

Continuing to sell to aircraft lessors is important for the 737 MAX, as they are the only customers willing to commit to large volumes of planes all at once in the current market environment.

Individual airlines that are profitable in developed markets such as the U.S. or Japan) face investors that are skeptical of large capital expenditure outlays.

Meanwhile, airlines in developing markets are facing down growth slowdowns and already have tons of Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies on order.

Exacerbating all of this is the post-2014 drop in fuel prices, which makes current generation aircraft more economical to operate and reduces the impetus for new purchases of the 737 MAX and A320neo whose cost savings mostly come from fuel burn reductions.

Small orders for 10-15 jets are still possible, but larger ones like SpiceJet’s 40 and Lion Air’s 50 are few and far in between. The one group of customers that can credibly order by large volumes of aircraft, however, is aircraft lessors, as they don’t need to sustain 75 MAX jets (as an example) with just one airline.

Instead, they can lease 10-15 aircraft to 5-6 different airlines, which makes them the likely primary source for big ticket MAX and neo orders over the next 12-18 months.