LONDON -- Irish low-cost airline Ryanair on Tuesday announced that it has ordered 175 Boeing 737-800 airplanes worth $15.6 billion at catalogue prices.
"When finalized, the deal will be worth nearly $15.6 billion at current list prices, and will allow Ryanair to grow its airline to more than 400 airplanes, serving more than 100 million passengers per year across Europe by the end of the delivery stream in 2018," Ryanair said.
Ryanair added that it was Boeing's largest order to date so far this year, and would support "thousands" of jobs in the United States.
"It will sustain thousands of skilled manufacturing jobs in Boeing and its supplier companies and will represent the largest ever capital investment by an Irish company in US manufacturing and U.S. jobs," Ryanair said.
The news came one day European aviation giant Airbus -- Boeing's fierce rival -- announced a record order worth 18.4 billion euros (US$23.8 billion) from Indonesia's Lion Air for 234 medium-range A320 jets.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
