Boeing (BOE, Washington National) has pitched its proposed B737 MAX 10 project to two of India's largest operators of the B737 Family of jets, SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) and Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International), Dinesh Keskar, the US manufacturer's Senior Vice President (Sales - Asia Pacific & India), has told Reuters.
As such, according to the report, Boeing has pitched to the two Indian operators as a means of determining market receptiveness to the aircraft, which is aimed at the A321neo niche. According to Keskar, the MAX 10 would be ideally suited to Indian carriers running frequent shuttle flights between the country's main hubs.
"If you are flying to the metros this (737 MAX-10) will be a perfect airplane, because runways are long, demand is there, frequency is already there," he said.
According to Boeing, the B737 MAX 10 will feature a 66-in. fuselage stretch, or two seat-rows, on the B737-9. Seating a total of 230 in a single class configuration, the upgraded CFM International Leap 1B-powered twinjet could make its debut as early as 2020.
For its part, budget carrier SpiceJet has firm orders for 155 B737 MAX alongside fifty options placed last year but formally revealed in January. For its part, full-service specialist Jet Airways has firm orders for seventy-five B737-8s with options to convert twenty-five outstanding B737 NextGen orders to B737 MAX 8s, as well as options and purchase rights for an additional fifty aircraft.
Both orders have the option to substitute some of their existing orders of MAX planes with the MAX-10, Keskar said.
