A Jet Airways Boeing 737 approaches to land at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India, earlier this year. The Indian carrier has ordered 75 of Boeing’s new version of the single-aisle jetliner.
By ROBERT WALL
Updated Nov. 9, 2015 5:51 a.m. ET
DUBAI— Boeing Co. on Monday signed an order for 75 single-aisle planes with India’s Jet Airways, valued at around $8 billion at list price, and talked up the prospects for one of its specialist military aircraft at the Dubai Air Show.
The Indian carrier, part owned by Etihad Airways, is buying Boeing’s 737 Max 8 narrowbody jetliner, an upgraded version of the planemaker’s best-selling aircraft.
Boeing previously listed the deal as an order from an undisclosed customer. As part of the deal, Jet Airways swapped orders for 25 current versions of the 737 jet for the new “Max.” The deal includes provisions for the purchase of 50 more planes.
Boeing plans to introduce the 737 Max from 2017.
Indian domestic airline passenger numbers are set to double over the next seven to eight years, Naresh Goyal, Jet Airways Chairman said at the Dubai Air Show in announcing the deal, hence the carrier’s plans for expanding its fleet.
Separately, Boeing said it sees scope for selling as many as 100 more P-8 maritime patrol aircraft to countries that would join India and Australia as buyers of the submarine-hunting plane beyond the U.S.
The sales could unfold over the next 10 years, Fred Smith, director of global sales for Boeing surveillance planes told reporters at the Dubai Air Show.
“We are seeing an uptick in demand because people had taken a wait-and-see attitude,” Mr. Smith said. With the plane now in service with the U.S. and India more customers are taking a look, he suggested.
The P-8 is based on the 737 jetliner and adds a host of sensors and the ability to deploy weapons to find and attack its targets. Australia is slated to receive its first P-8 next year after placing an order for eight of the planes, with options for four more, last year.
Foreign orders could help Boeing stretch production of the P-8 when the U.S. Navy’s planned purchases end. The Navy, whose current plans call for acquiring 109 of the planes, is set to take delivery of the last batch around 2022, said U.S. Navy Capt. Shane Tallant, who runs the service’s international maritime patrol-aircraft programs.
The U.K. is currently considering buying the P-8 as part of an assessment of how to meet a gap in sub-hunting capability after an earlier defense review scrapped plans to introduce the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 jet which had fallen years behind schedule.
Mr. Tallant said the U.S. Navy could free up some of its near-term production slots for the airplane should the U.K. want P-8s quickly.
The U.S. Navy also is expanding its use of the plan overseas. At least two P-8s are scheduled to be based in Bahrain from April, with regular operations from Sigonella on the Italian island of Sicily set to start in 2018, a service official said.
See more at: http://www.wsj.com
A Boeing P-8 aircraft on display at the Farnborough International Air Show, Farnborough, England, last year.
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