The contract, which includes exercised options previously placed by Alaska, is valued at $1.3 billion at list prices.

The largest and newest model in the 737 family, the 737-900ER can carry up to 26 more passengers or fly about 500 nautical miles (926 km) farther than the 737-900.

The longer range of the 737-900ER will connect distant city pairs across continents, such as Seattle to Orlando, Florida in a generous two-class configuration. It has substantial economic advantages over competing models, including six percent lower operating costs per trip and four percent lower operating costs per seat mile.

Alaska Airlines plans to operate the 737-900ER in a two-class configuration with 178 to 184 seats. The Next-Generation 737s will add capability to Alaska Airlines' fleet of 114 737s currently serving 61 destinations in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Brad Tilden, president of Alaska Airlines, said: “The 737-900ER will be a perfect fit for our transcontinental, high traffic west coast and mid-continental markets and will be the most fuel efficient airplane in our fleet. We look forward to adding the same 'Proudly All Boeing' logo to these airplanes that already adorns the rest of our 737 fleet.”

Marlin Dailey, vice president of sales and marketing for commercial airplanes at Boeing, said: “The addition of these Next-Generation 737s demonstrates our hometown partner's strong investment in its future growth. It also speaks to the continuous improvements we are making to the Next-Generation 737 in terms of efficiency, economics, reliability and passenger comfort.”

Will the new contract benefit the firms?

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