Boeing Announces Biggest Jet Yet At Paris Air Show

Hustling for new customers at the Paris Air Show, Boeing Co BA on Monday announced plans to build the 737 Max 10, its biggest single-aisle airliner yet.

The aircraft will seat up to 230 passengers and be 5.5 feet longer than the company’s 737 Max 9, which seats 178 passengers.

The move is aimed at helping Boeing compete with Europe’s Airbus SE.

India’s SpiceJet airlines immediately announced it would buy 40 737 MAX airplanes.

The agreement, valued at $4.7 billion, is split evenly between 20 new orders for the 737 MAX 10 and conversions of 20 of the low-cost carrier's 737 MAX 8 airplanes from its existing order to 737 MAX 10s.

Airlines Want To Fit More Passengers Into Planes

Boeing said it will announce this week orders for more than 240 of the new jets from more than 10 customers. The company expects to have the jet in service in 2020.

The airline is moving quickly. Its current biggest jet, the 737 Max 9, makes its debut in Paris just this week. The Max 9 is expected to go into service next year. The first installment of the Max line, the Max 8, went into service just last month.

The company scrambled to put together the Max 10 in response to the demand from airlines for more fuel-efficient planes carrying more passengers.

“Our customers told us to build it bigger,” Boeing Commercial Airplane chief executive Kevin McAllister told CNN.

Airbus immediately responded Monday with an order for 100 of its popular A320neo planes from leasing firm GECAS. The company suggested much of the interest in the MAX 10 was from existing Boeing customers switching orders from other models.

"We think the 737 MAX 10 is a competitor to the (MAX) 9 and that's why a lot of people are converting," Airbus sales chief John Leahy told Reuters.