It seems in the battle of Boeing vs Airbus, Boeing has scored a hit with Malaysia Airlines. The airline has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for 16 Boeing Aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and Boeing 737 MAX – Rendering, The Boeing Company.
The planned split of the order will be for
- 8 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners (converting eight exisiting 737 MAX orders)
- Purchasing rights 8 Additional for Boeing 737 MAX aircraft
In addition, Malaysia Airlines will sign up to Boeing’s Global Fleet Care service programme to carry out maintenance of current and future planes.
As this is a MoU, this isn’t a finalised order yet – rather it will be posted as an order once confirmed.
Peter Bellew, managing director and chief executive officer of Malaysia Airlines is happy with the MoU stating
“Malaysia Airlines is proud to sign this MOU for the widebody Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and additional 737 MAXs, building on our more than 40 years of partnership with Boeing,”
“New widebody aircraft are a key to making Malaysia Airlines a premium airline offering a five star product again. The extraordinary range of the 787-9 gives an ability to operate to any point in Europe and some USA destinations in the future from Kuala Lumpur. The MOU with Boeing on their Global Fleet Care program will allow the two companies to build a world class MRO for the 737 MAX, 787 and 737NG based on Malaysia’s existing facilities in Kuala Lumpur.”
Malaysia Airlines operates a fleet of 53 Boeing 737-800 Next Gen Aircraft. The airline has operated Boeing wide-body aircraft before, including the Boeing 747 and 777.
Currently, Malaysia Airlines long haul services are operated with Airbus A330s and A380s – with Airbus A350s due to join the fleet.
With the exit of the A380s from the fleet in due course to become charter aircraft – these will help fill the gap the A380 leaves behind, and provide some extra planes for expansion of service.
Once the order is confirmed, we’ll hopefully find out what products are being installed aboard their Boeing 737s – and if they’ll have one row of seats as a First class cabin….
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