Ryanair has provided an update on delays to deliveries of its 737 MAX aircraft, with the airline reducing its full year traffic target by some five million passengers.
The low-cost carrier had expected to take delivery of 57 Boeing 737 MAX 200s by the end of June, but this figure has now been cut to just 40 aircraft.
As a result Ryanair said it had reduced frequencies on existing services – rather than cutting new routes – with airports including Dublin, Milan Malpensa, Warsaw Modlin and four Portuguese facilities seeing cuts due to higher airport costs.
The airline is now targeting between 198 and 200 million passengers for the full year to March 2025, down from the previous 205 million.
Ryanair Group is in the process of taking delivery of 210 Boeing 737 MAX 200s, and last year placed an order for 150 MAX 10 aircraft, with options for a further 150 of the Boeing planes.
Group CEO Michael O’Leary said he was “very disappointed” by the latest delays, but said that Ryanair would “work with Boeing to take delayed aircraft deliveries during August and September 2024 to help Boeing reduce their delivery backlog”.
“Boeing continues to have Ryanair’s wholehearted support as they work through these temporary challenges, and we are confident that their senior management team, led by Dave Calhoun (CEO) and Brian West (CFO), will resolve these production delays and quality control issues in both Wichita and Seattle,” continued O’Leary.
“We expect these latest Boeing delivery delays, which regrettably are beyond Ryanair’s control, combined with the grounding of up to 20 per cent of our Airbus competitors’ A320 fleets in Europe, will lead to more constrained capacity and slightly higher air fares for consumers in Europe in Summer 2024.”
