Boeing 737MAX

Boeing Business Jets expects the new 737 Max platform to boost the range of the aircraft in a VIP configuration by several hundred nautical miles.

The Boeing-GE joint venture's studies have shown that the initial variant of the revamped 737 - the -8 model due to enter airline service in 2017 and equivalent in size to the existing -800, used as the platform for the BBJ2 - will offer "700nm [1,300km] more range, which makes the [Max-based] BBJ2 slightly longer-range than today's BBJ," said Boeing Business Jets president Steve Taylor.

A Max version of the BBJ2 is "likely to be the first product to market," he said at this morning's press conference, because the 737-8 will be the first of the new airline models to enter service.

Although it has yet to be decided when the first production slots will be offered for BBJ versions of the CFM International Leap X-powered 737 Max, "I would like to think that we would be towards the front end of the tree," said Taylor.

Boeing Business Jets has sold four BBJs since last year's NBAA in Atlanta, including two BBJs, a BBJ2 and a ninth 747-8 Intercontinental VIP. In the same period it has delivered five aircraft, with two more due to be handed over by the end of the year. A total of 205 aircraft have been sold since Boeing Business Jets was established 15 years ago.

With a 2017 service entry for Max planned, Boeing aims to certify the new 737 variant under an amended type certificate rather than a full-scale recertification.