FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 18, 2017
chamber@usacc.org
202 333 8702

We are excited to announce that Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines has purchased 10 new Boeing 737-MAX 8 aircraft, which will be manufactured at the aerospace company’s Renton, Wash., assembly facility.

The price tag for the new aircraft is $1.1 billion. The Renton plant employs more than 12,000 workers. The Silk Way order is part of a ramp-up of new hiring at the plant as Boeing increases production of its popular 737 commercial craft.

“We are proud that one of Azerbaijan’s top airlines is buying its new airplanes here in the U.S.,” said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the United States. “Azerbaijan is happy to contribute to the American economy and to help create jobs for American workers.”

In 2015, Silk Way purchased three Boeing 747-8 freighters at a cost of $1.1 billion. They were built at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., plant, which employs 30,000 workers.

Also in 2015, Azerbaijan Airlines, the nation’s flag-carrier, celebrated delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which was assembled at the company’s Charleston, S.C., plant, home to 7,500 workers.

"We are very pleased to expand our partnership with Silk Way with this airplane order,” Marty Bentrott, Vice President of Sales, Middle East, Turkey, Russia and Central Asia, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a company statement. "We value our partnership with Silk Way and are grateful for their enduring confidence in the Boeing products."

Azerbaijan Airlines and Silk Way Airlines operate direct Baku-New York passenger flights and Baku-Chicago cargo flights. Azerbaijan is emerging as a regional logistic hub along the historic Silk Road thanks to major investments in infrastructure development including a new airport, an advanced cargo terminal and the largest port on the Caspian Sea.

Source: USACC