Boeing clinches first firm order for 737 Max since aircraft’s grounding

Boeing on Thursday clinched its first firm order for the troubled 737 Max since the aircraft was grounded 20 months ago, with a multibillion-dollar deal for 75 passenger jets from Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low-cost airline. The order marks the beginning of efforts to rehabilitate the aircraft — as well as Boeing’s own reputation — after two fatal accidents within five months left 346 people dead. Investigations following the crashes revealed Boeing had concealed design flaws in flight control software from pilots and regulators in a race to get the aircraft certified.  The flawed anti-stall system, deemed a critical factor in the accidents, has been redesigned and pilots will have to go through more extensive training programmes. The FAA last month declared the jet safe to fly and other regulators are expected to follow suit in the coming weeks. Michael O’Leary, CE of Ryanair — already one of Boeing’s biggest Max customers — said he was “confident that our customers will love these new aircraft”. At list prices, the order is worth close to $8b, but analysts expect the Ryanair boss to have negotiated a steep discount given that it brings the airline’s total 737 Max order to 210 aircraft worth a headline $22b. Normally, aircraft are sold at discounts of about 50% to catalogue prices but the reduction is likely to have been even greater in the current climate. O’Leary said that there had been a “modest further improvement in the pricing. It’s not huge. But every modest reduction you can get when placing an order for up to $22b, a small discount is a lot of money.” But Scott Hamilton of Leeham, an aerospace consultancy, noted that “modest” is a subjective term.<br/>