Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Turkish Airlines announces order for 70 Boeing 737's

Turkish Airlines placed an order for 70 Boeing 737 short-haul jetliners plus 25 options with a potential list price of $9.4 billion, less than a month after agreeing to purchase the rival A320 plane from Airbus (EAD) SAS.

The $6.9 billion firm element covers 20 737-800 jets, 40 re-engined Max versions of the same size and 10 larger 737-9 Max models, Istanbul-based Turkish Airlines said in a statement. The options comprise 25 further 737-8 Max planes, Boeing said.

Airbus and Boeing have won a slew of recent narrow-body orders from carriers spanning Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA), Ryanair Holdings Plc and AirAsia BHD, taking combined commitments for A320s and 737s above 700 units this year. Airbus sales chief John Leahy said yesterday the planemaker may ask existing customers to delay deliveries to make room for new buyers.

Turkish Airlines, as Turk Hava Yollari AO is known, will start taking the first 20 Boeing jets in 2016, followed by the same number in 2018, 15 in 2019, 30 in 2020 and the final 10 in 2021, according to the stock-exchange filing.

The carrier is buying jets from Boeing after placing an order for 82 A320-series planes valued at $9.3 billion on March 15. Deliveries from Airbus are scheduled to begin in 2015.
 
The deal with Toulouse, France-based Airbus includes 25 A321s, together with 53 re-engined Neo versions of the model, and four A320neos. It has options to buy a further 35 A321neos.

Turkish Air, whose biggest planes are Boeing 777-300ERs, has said it’s looking at buying as many as six Airbus A380 superjumbos as it seeks to emulate Gulf carriers including Dubai-based Emirates in taking Europe-Asia transfer traffic from rivals such as Air France-KLM (AF) Group and British Airways.

(Robert Wall - Bloomberg News)

No comments: