A NORWEGIAN airline ordered 222 single-aisle airliners from Airbus and Boeing valued at a combined 127 billion kroner ($21.5 billion), including models equipped with fuel-efficient engines.
Norwegian Air Shuttle will buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX8 planes and 100 Airbus A320neo (new engine option) aircraft, as well as 22 of Boeing’s existing 737-800 model, the Fornebu.
Deliveries will start in 2016, it said.
The airline also took options for 100 737 MAX8s and 50 A320neos.
The company is the first European customer for the MAX model, which Boeing decided last year to offer to blunt the success of Broughton-based Airbus’s A320neo aircraft.
Single-aisle aircraft are the most widely used type of jets globally, and the A320neo has become the fastest-selling aircraft in aviation history.
“It will certainly help to keep costs even lower which will enable Norwegian to stay competitive on a cost basis,” said Hans-Erik Jacobsen, analyst at First Securities ASA.
“By ordering so many aircraft Norwegian will certainly position themselves to be one of the major players in the European market place.”
Airbus has said it plans to provide the first A320neo planes to customers by late 2015.
Boeing’s target year for the first 737 MAX delivery is 2017.
The global market for narrow-body planes is estimated at $2 trillion in the next 20 years.
