Ryanair has ordered 175 Boeing airplanes worth €12.1 billion. It is the largest ever aircraft order from a European airline.

In a statement Ryanair said it signed an agreement with the Boeing company today to buy 175 new Next Generation 737-800 planes.

When finalised, the airline says the deal will allow Ryanair to grow traffic to more than 100 million passengers per year and create more than 3,000 new jobs across the airline. It will also allow the low-cost carrier to grow its airline to more than 400 airplanes by the end of the delivery stream in 2018.

The agreement was signed by Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary and Boeing Commercial Airplanes President CEO Ray Conner in New York. However the deal still has to be approved by Ryanair shareholders.

The purchase will become Boeing's largest deal to date in 2013. Ryanair adds that it will "sustain thousands of skilled manufacturing jobs in Boeing and its supplier companies and will represent the largest ever capital investment by an Irish company in U.S. manufacturing and U.S. jobs".

'Enable us to lower costs further'

The jobs are expected to be created for pilots, cabin crew and engineers at Ryanair bases across Europe. Some 75 of these new aircraft will replace some of the existing fleet of 305 Boeing 737s.

Announcing the order Ryanair CEO O'Leary said "Ryanair is proud to buy Boeing, who have always made great aircraft and the 737-800 has been the cornerstone of Ryanair’s success due to its great engineering and phenomenal reliability".

"These 175 new airplanes will enable us to lower cost and airfares even further, thereby widening Ryanair’s cost and price leadership over other airlines in Europe."

"They provide Ryanair with the additional capacity to exploit substantial growth opportunities that currently exist as many of Europe’s flag carrier and smaller airlines are restructuring and reducing their short-haul operations" he added.