A longer-range Boeing 737NG that will carry up to 204 passengers (the maximum now is 189) is being proposed by Boeing here at Le Bourget. "We call it the 737-900X," says James Haas, regional director of product marketing. It will be particularly attractive to charter operators, he believes. The 737-900X will add 200 nmi range to top out at 3,200 nmi, while one new door on each side behind the wing to meet passenger evacuation rules will allow up to 204 passengers, Haas told Show News. "A number of customers are already very interested," he says. Until this proposal the 737NG series has been limited to the number of passengers it can carry by egress certification rules. Thus the ­800 and longer ­900 were each limited to 189 passengers, the former at 30-inch seat pitch and the latter at 32-inch pitch. But the new proposal will allow charter operators to cram 204 passengers into the ­900X at the lesser pitch. The 737-900X will have a 9,000 pounds greater maximum takeoff weight of 183,200 pounds although, Haas says, the exact increases are not yet fully defined.

While Airbus sees congestion at airports driving passengers into very large aircraft, Boeing sees a different picture: most of the crunch is in aircraft below 250 seats, so the way to ease the problem is for airlines to move upwards into just-a-bit-bigger airliners, says the American.

Hence the popularity of the 737NG, which is now the best and fastest selling aircraft in history with 1,809 orders as of the end of April-just three years since it entered service.

It is already being stretched as long as a DC-8-80 with the 189-passenger ­900, one of the first of which is on show here at Le Bourget in the colors of Continental Airlines. Orders for this longest version stand at 48.

"The 737NG airplane is definitely a market fragmenter-its flexibility is such that it (and the 737 Classic) have taken 90% of the European low-fare market, while it is also capable of long range and ETOPS routes," says James Haas, regional director of product marketing. He says that since its introduction in 1998 it has won 120 orders from European charter operators-versus just 22 orders for Airbus A319/A320s.

As a route fragmenter, for example, Aloha Airlines has introduced the 737NG on direct flights from Honolulu and Maui (Hawaii) to Oakland, California, achieving almost-Sonic Cruiser times for the route for many passengers by cutting out a connecting flight to a hub in Los Angeles.