“Air Astana intends to order 30 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes to serve as the backbone of its new low-cost airline FlyArystan, the Kazakh-flag airline and Boeing announced at [the show] Dubai Airshow.”
“The companies they signed today [November 19] a letter of intent for the 30 aircraft worth $ 3.6 billion according to the list price,” says a press release posted on the Boeing website.
The US aeronautical giant thanked Air Astana for its confidence in Boeing.
It is the second order for the 737 Max 8 that the company is awarded at the Dubai air show.
The day before, Boeing announced that the SunExpress airline – a Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines joint venture that performs flights to 90 destinations in 30 countries – is exercising the option to purchase an additional 10 Boeing 737 MaX 8 aircraft, for $1.2 billion, which adds up to a previous order of 32 Max aircraft.
Two seemingly similar catastrophes in less than five months – from a flight by the Indonesian company Lion Air in the Java Sea and Ethiopian Airlines near Addis Ababa, with 189 and 157 dead, respectively – caused a suspension cascade by airlines and air transport regulators, leaving the global 737 Max fleet on the ground and causing Boeing to collapse in the stock market.
According to the preliminary investigation, the pilots had difficulties with the MCAS stabilizer software (Maneuver Character Enhancement System) and failed to regain control of the aircraft.
Boeing reported last October that the 737 Max will be one of the safest airplanes to fly, once the MCAS program has been updated.
The company spent more than 100,000 hours developing the 737 Max improvements and made more than 814 test flights with the updated software.
Source: Sputniknews
