Well it seems someone has a few pennies to spend, with Norwegian Air Shuttle opening its wallets to both Boeing and Airbus.
From Boeing, Norwegian has placed a firm order for Boeing 737-MAX’s (737-8MAX variant) and 22 Boeing 737-800’s. Meanwhile not to leave Airbus out in the cold, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with them for 100 A320NEO’s.
In addition, Norwegian are also seeking additional options on these for 100 additional 737-MAX’s and 50 A320NEO’s.
For Airbus and Boeing – the battle lines are now formally drawn with Airbus and it’s A320NEO (New Engine Option) and Boeing with it’s 737-MAX. Both of which are updates to the familiar A320/B737 frames with new engines and a lower fuel burn.
Norwegian trumpets this as the largest ever European Aviation order, and will be seeing the results of the purchases from 2016 onwards. This is also excellent news for the company as they have secured their fleet renewal for some years to come.
This of course costs a pretty penny – a total cost of 127bn Norwegian krone ($21.5; £13.9bn) in fact.
That’s a lot of fares and flying to collect…