Malaysia Airlines agrees to $3-bn Boeing plane deal

Malaysia Airlines Berhad agreed to buy Boeing Company’s 787-9 Dreamliners and 737 Max jets as the Southeast Asian nation’s flag carrier looks to boost services on its busiest routes.

The airline signed a memorandum of understanding for eight of the carbon-composite Dreamliners, and eight 737 Max 8s, Boeing said in an e-mailed statement late Tuesday. The planes are worth $3.06 billion at list prices that exclude customary discounts.

The agreement marks a victory for Boeing in a competition that had been viewed as favouring rival Airbus. Malaysia had been in talks for the European planemaker’s A330neo wide-body jets but had been unable to reach a deal on price, Chief Executive Officer Peter Bellew said in an interview in June.

Malaysia Airlines may double an order of 25 of the single-aisle 737 Max 10 over the next five years, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak Najib said at a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday before the announcement.

“We’re talking about trade -very large trade deals,” Trump said. “We’re working on one deal where between $10 and $20 billion dollars’ worth of Boeing jets are going to be purchased, General Electric engines will be purchased, and many other things.”

Najib said there is a “strong probability -not possibility -probability that we will add 25 more 737 Max 10 in the near future. So within five years, the deal will be worth beyond $10 billion.” His government will “also try to persuade AirAsia to purchase GE engines,” the prime minister said.

The Malaysian prime minister also pledged that a national pension fund would invest $3 billion to $4 billion to support “infrastructure redevelopment” in the US.