Jet Airways to buy 75 Boeing 737 Max planes to meet growing demand in India

Jet Airways becomes the latest carrier in India to order more planes to meet burgeoning demand, fueled by an expanding middle class that’s finding air travel affordable.

Jet Airways India Ltd. agreed to buy 75 Boeing Co. 737 Max aircraft, confirming an earlier planned order to help meet demand in the world’s fastest growing major aviation market.

A Jet Airways plane is parked at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport in Mumbai on February 14, 2018.(REUTERS FILE)

The order is valued at $7.2 billion to $9.7 billion based on list prices for the 737 Max narrow-body family, before discounts that are customary for large purchases. Jet Airways, which didn’t specify the 737 Max variant for this order in a statement issued late Tuesday, flies an all-Boeing narrow-body fleet and already has made an order for the Max 8, the most popular of the planemaker’s revamped 737 models.

Jet Airways becomes the latest carrier in India to order more planes to meet burgeoning demand, fueled by an expanding middle class that’s finding air travel affordable. SpiceJet Ltd. has ordered more than 200 narrow-body aircraft from Boeing, while market leader IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., is the biggest customer for Airbus SE’s A320neo jets.

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways PJSC holds a 24 percent stake in Jet Airways. The Indian carrier was in talks with planemakers to buy 75 to 100 single-aisle jets in the fiscal year through March 2018, Chief Executive Officer Vinay Dube said in October.