Here's What MAS Has To Say About Buying 25 New Boeing Planes
The order for 25 Boeing 737 aircraft is via sale and leaseback.
By Sadho Ram — 23 Sep 2017, 11:36 AM
Malaysia Airlines has firm orders for 25 Boeing 737 aircraft only and that everything else was optional, the national carrier said in a statement on Wednesday, 20 September
Recently, there have been reports following PM Najib Razak's meeting with US President Donald Trump on 12 September about MAS' intention to purchase more aircraft, especially wide-bodied ones, and various numbers have been mentioned.
On 12 September, Najib had told Trump that MAS would buy 25 Boeing 737 jets and eight 787 Dreamliners, adding that the national carrier would probably add another 25 737s in the near future. The total worth of the deal would be more than USD10 billion.
Clarifying that they made 25 firm orders for the 737-MAX8 aircraft and 25 options back in 2016, Malaysia Airlines added that the aircraft were ordered purely as replacements for existing planes, beginning from 2019
"The 737 MAX aircraft has been designed to offer customers exceptional performance, flexibility and efficiency, with lower per-seat costs and an extended range that will open up new destinations," the national carrier said, explaining that the funding for the 25 aircraft is planned on a sale-and-operating leaseback or simple operational lease.
Malaysia Airlines entered into a new agreement with Boeing in June 2017.
According to the new agreement, MAS is allowed to choose Boeing's new larger 737-MAX10 aircraft for 10 out of the previous firm order of 25 737-MAX8.
"With this agreement, Malaysia Airlines can decide to take either the MAX8 or MAX10. The MAX10 aircraft are expected to commence delivery in early 2021," it said.
Currently, there are 54 aircraft in Malaysia Airlines' fleet of 737-800 with only 48 operating as six of the aircraft are being handed back to lessors in December 2017
The six aircraft are currently going through a lease return maintenance programme.
"In 2018, we will operate 44 737-800 aircraft daily, with three in maintenance and one available spare. The 48 operating aircraft in the 737-800 fleet start reaching end of lease from early 2019," the statement issued by Malaysia Airlines read.
MAS said it would carefully evaluate all options to ensure its purchases would make business and operational sense
The airline added that a recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to potentially add eight of the widebody Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft to its fleet from Quarter 3 in 2019 was to add capacity to its widebody fleet and provide a high level of quality on its most lucrative routes.
Explaining how the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft has one of the longest ranges of any commercial aircraft, it said the list price for eight of them was about USD2.5 billion.
"The options, as well as a variety of other arrangements including the recent MoU with Boeing, will allow us to have some flexibility in deciding which aircraft suits our operational environment best," Malaysia Airlines said.
