Norwegian is dumping their A320 options or a portion of at least, and Jet2 are taking them on after seeking finance from Bank of America I believe.
If the above works out, then the Airbus 320NEO order makes sense. The B738MAX will begin flying in two years’ time and with a backlog of 3000 orders in the pipeline and a manufaturiung rate of 500 airframes per year, any order today would mean waiting 8+ years for delivery.
JET2 don’t have the time to wait if they plan on renewing their 27year+ fleet of B733s and B757s, of which there are about 20. The best they could do as an alternative is to continue to buy/lease second hand 10+ year old B738s.
Incidently my preference would be for Boeing....but needs must.