Ryanair has signed an agreement to purchase 175 new-generation B737-800 aircraft from Boeing.
The deal, which the carrier says will be the largest ever aircraft order by a European airline, will allow Ryanair to grow its all-B737-800 fleet to over 400 aircraft, and serve over 100 million passengers per year by 2019.
Around 75 of the aircraft will replace existing fleet, with the remainder being used to grow the carrier’s service “by about 5 per cent per annum over the next several years”.
Ryanair says it is also continuing “to evaluate the benefits of Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft which enters service in 2017”.
In November last year rival carrier Easyjet said it was “making good progress on its technical and commercial evaluation of the next generation of short-haul aircraft technology” (see online news November 20, 2102).
At the time the carrier said that following further evaluation it would bring a proposal to shareholders, “which will cover both the next generation of deliveries which are likely to be after 2017 and a plan for the bridging period from 2014 to 2017”.
Easyjet currently operates an all-Airbus fleet of A319 and A320 aircraft. This week the carrier announced plans to fit new lightweight Recaro seats to its new aircraft from next month (see online news March 18).
For more information visit ryanair.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
