Delta Air Lines planes at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
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Delta Air Lines is buying 100 Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft, its first major order of new aircraft from the American manufacturer in more than a decade.
The deal has options for 30 more planes. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2025.
The new order is good news for Boeing, as Airbus recently gained high-profile sales, including from several state-owned airlines in China. Boeing lamented trade tensions when the order was announced.
Delta said Monday that the order will modernize its narrow-body fleet as the carrier seeks to capitalize on a rise in travel after the record drop caused by the Covid pandemic. He said Max planes will be 20% -30% more fuel efficient than the planes they will replace.
Delta, based in Atlanta, is the only one of the four major U.S. airlines that has not ordered new Boeing aircraft in recent years, favoring Airbus as it strengthened its narrow-body, wide-body fleet of long range. Delta withdrew the older Boeing 777s during the pandemic and has received more deliveries of two-aisle Airbus A350 aircraft.
The 737 Max was blocked for at least 18 months after the second of two fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people. The United States laid the groundwork in November 2020. Delta’s competitors during this period faced capacity constraints as deliveries of new Maxes came to a halt.
The Max 10 model is the largest of the narrow-bodied Max family and does not yet have government approval. Boeing hopes to get approval for the planes before the end of the year. The regulations approved as a result of the two accidents will require that the new aircraft be equipped with a cabin alert system.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian had previously hinted at a Max aircraft order. When asked at a recent investor conference about a possible order for narrow-body aircraft, Bastian said, “We’ve been trying to come to an agreement with Boeing on this … hopefully we can find out.”
Delta will set up the plane with 182 seats: 129 in standard economy class, 33 in Comfort + with extra legroom and 20 in first class.
Boeing shares rose 4% in pre-market trading, while Delta shares rose more than 2%.
Most of Delta’s new orders in recent years came from Airbus Europe.
In 2017, Delta was in the middle of a trade dispute between Boeing and Bombardier of Canada, the then-producer of C-Series narrow-body aircraft, which Delta commissioned. Boeing assumed that Bombardier was selling the planes below price, a case it eventually lost. Airbus later took over the program, renaming the aircraft A220.