Monarch Airlines (1968) (London Luton) will switch its narrow-body fleet from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) to Boeing (BOE, Washington National) machinery with news the carrier is in the process of finalizing terms with the US manufacturer concerning a Purchase Agreement for thirty B737 MAX 8s.

The transaction, which was announced during the Farnborough International Airshow 2014, is valued at USD3.1billion at current list prices and will be posted to the Boeing Orders & Deliveries website when finalized.

"Having reviewed all of the options in the marketplace, we concluded that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 is the aircraft that best fits our future route network strategy, enabling us to tightly control our unit costs whilst offering a superior service to our customers," said Andrew Swaffield, Managing Director, Monarch Airlines.

Monarch's narrowbody fleet currently consists of ten A320-200s, twenty-seven A321-200s, and three B757-200s used on flights around the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands as well as to European ski resorts.