Japan Airlines and Boeing sign agreement for 21 737 MAX

JAL’s order secures a MAX foothold with Japan’s flagship carrier as Boeing scrambles to undermine Airbus’ lead in the narrow-body aircraft market. Picture file.

Tokyo: Japan Airlines has placed its first ever Boeing 737 MAX order, as it announced a plan on Thursday to purchase 21 planes to replenish its fleet.

The civil aviation deal is worth at least $2.5 billion at list prices. It is also billed as a win for Boeing over European competitor Airbus, which was in talks with JAL over the best-selling narrow-body A320neo.

JAL Chairman Yuji Akasaka said the company plans to integrate the new planes into its fleet from 2026. The 737 MAX’s range and fuel efficiency will reduce carbon emissions by 15 percent compared to the planes they replace, he said. “I think it’s a very high potential plane,” Akasaka said.

JAL’s order secures a MAX foothold with Japan’s flagship carrier as Boeing scrambles to undermine Airbus’ lead in the narrow-body aircraft market.

Although JAL mainly operates Boeing aircraft, it caused a shock to the aviation industry in 2013 when it chose to buy Airbus’ A350 jumbo jet instead of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which at the time was struggling to fix the technical issues.

With JAL’s current fleet of 48 Dreamliners now dwarfing the carrier’s 11 A350s, Airbus’ initial order has raised questions about whether Boeing will continue to dominate the Japanese market.

Those concerns have been exacerbated by the 737 MAX crisis, which led All Nippon Airways to delay finalizing an order for 20 MAXs first announced in January 2019. ANA and Boeing reached the MAX deal in July.

The Boeing 737-800 currently makes up the largest part of JAL’s narrowbody fleet, with the carrier owning 47 jets and leasing another 17,737, according to JAL.

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