Norwegian Air orders 50 Boeing MAX planes with the option to purchase an additional 30.
Oslo (Reuters) -Norwegian Air said on Monday that it has agreed to buy 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes and has options for another 30 of the same planes at a price that has not been made public.
The deal is good for Boeing because it keeps long-time customer Norwegian from switching to rival Airbus. Earlier this year, the Oslo-based airline said it was thinking about switching to Airbus.
For Norwegian, this deal is a way to get back to owning planes after having to lease them during the bankruptcy process that saved the company last year.
“The 50 planes are scheduled to be delivered between 2025 and 2028, which is close to when the current planes’ leases end. “This means that the company’s current fleet will grow only slightly, “Norwegian said in a statement.
Because of the agreements, the airline said it expects to have a net gain of about 2 billion crowns ($212.2 million) after the deal is done, which will increase its equity. It didn’t say more.
“This is a major deal that paves the way for Norwegian to own a large part of its fleet,” said Svein Harald Oeygard, chair of the board.
“This will lead to lower all-in costs and more stable finances, which will help us strengthen our Nordic stronghold.”
Norwegian told Reuters in February that it was thinking about switching to Airbus if the lawsuits it had with Boeing over canceled planes were not resolved soon.
A source close to the deal said that Norwegian wants to end the legal dispute with the U.S. planemaker before the final closing of the new aircraft deal, which is likely to happen by the end of June.
It was Boeing’s second big European order for MAX planes in the past few weeks, after a deal with the big airline IAG (LON: ICAG).
($1 is worth 9.4243 Norwegian crowns).