Boeing 737 max orders top 1,000 with $6 billion lessor deal

Boeing Co. won an order for 60 of its upgraded single-aisle 737s, with a catalog value of $6 billion, from Aviation Capital Group LLC.

The purchase brings total orders for the 737 Max, the latest variation of the world’s most widely flown passenger jet, to 1,029, the Chicago-based planemaker said in a statement. The airliner will feature more fuel-efficient engines and compete with Airbus SAS’s upgraded A320neo series after a commercial debut now scheduled for 2017.

The 737 Max 8 lists for $100.5 million, and the Max 9 for $107.3 million. Plane buyers typically don’t pay catalog prices.

“Reaching 1,000 orders in just over a year’s time from our first order” shows the aircraft’s value for customers, said Bob Feldmann, vice president for the jet program. “Customers are expressing confidence in our ability to deliver improved performance on schedule.”

The planemaker was criticized after more than three years of delays on its most recent all-new jet, the composite plastic 787 Dreamliner, which was delivered to its first customer in late 2011.

Boeing unveiled plans to revamp its 737 with the Max variant in July of the same year, more than seven months after Airbus announced the neo, a lag that helped the European planemaker book record narrow-body orders in 2011. Equipped with Leap engines from CFM International, a partnership of General Electric Co. and Safran SA., the Max reduces fuel usage and carbon dioxide emissions by 13 percent.

“This order is a major step in building our broad portfolio of modern, fuel-efficient airplanes,” Denis Kalscheur, chief executive officer of Aviation Capital, said in a statement. The jet lessor, based in Newport Beach, California, was founded in 1989, according to its website.

Boeing rose 1.7 percent to $76.60 at 8:54 a.m. in New York, before the start of regular trading. The shares gained 2.7 percent last year.