Low-cost carrier Ryanair has signed an agreement with Boeing to purchase 175 new Next Generation 737-800 airplanes.

When finalized, the deal will allow Ryanair to grow traffic to more than 100m passengers per annum and create more than 3,000 new jobs across the airline, it said.

The deal will be worth nearly $15.6bn at current list prices, and will allow Ryanair to grow its airline to more than 400 airplanes by the end of the delivery stream in 2018.

The purchase will become Boeing's largest deal to date in 2013 upon approval by Ryanair's shareholders.

Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive Officer of Ryanair, said: "Ryanair is pleased to sign this agreement with Boeing to purchase 175 new 737-800 jets, which will expand our fleet to over 400 units, creating over 3,000 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers, while allowing us to grow our low-cost airline service by about 5 percent per annum over the next several years and take our traffic to 100 million passengers by March 2019."

Ray Conner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said: "This purchase agreement is an amazing testament to the value that the Next Generation 737 brings to Ryanair. We are pleased that the Next-Generation 737, as the most efficient, most reliable large single-aisle airplane flying today, has been and will continue to be the cornerstone of the Ryanair fleet."

Ryanair's share price was up 0.97% to €5.86 per share at 09:40 on Tuesday.

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