Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of the Ryanair Group
, has said that the low-cost carrier had to cut its passenger traffic estimates as it has continued facing delivery delays from Boeing.
Boeing 737 MAX delivery delays
In an interview with Reuters, O’Leary, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Ryanair
, said that the airline was supposed to receive 20 Boeing 737 MAX 8-200
before the end of the year.
Photo: Ceri Breeze | Shutterstock
While those aircraft should come in January and February 2025, the problem was that Ryanair is scheduled to receive 30 737 MAX 8-200s between March and June 2025, O’Leary told Reuters, questioning how many aircraft it would actually receive for the upcoming summer season.
The Irish executive concluded that the low-cost carrier would have to cut its traffic estimates because Boeing would not be able to deliver the 30 aircraft on time.
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Few dozen 737 MAX aircraft deliveries
Ch-aviation data showed that so far in 2024, Ryanair has taken delivery of 34 737 MAX 8-200
aircraft, which included deliveries to Buzz, Malta Air
, and the Ireland-registered Ryanair.
In comparison, between January 1, 2023, and October 17, 2023, Malta Air and Ryanair had taken delivery of 40 737 MAX 8-200s, with the group ending the calendar year with 136 aircraft of the type.
Its Q3 FY2024 presentation pointed out that the low-cost carrier group should have taken delivery of 57 737 MAX 8-200s by April. However, it had expected to take delivery of 50 aircraft by the end of June.
Yet Boeing has continued to struggle to deliver aircraft on time, as it was reeling from the Alaska Airlines mid-air door plug blowout in January, which drew additional scrutiny from airlines and regulators.
Photo: Ryanair
This has included Ryanair, which said that it met Boeing in January, as well as increased its presence at Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems’ facilities in Seattle and Wichita, respectively.
By Q1 FY2025, Ryanair had 156 737 MAX 8-200 aircraft on June 30, 20 fewer than Boeing was contractually obliged to deliver, O’Leary noted during that quarter’s earnings presentation.
During the same presentation, O’Leary said that Ryanair’s estimated passenger traffic would be between 198 million and 200 million passengers by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2025.
The CEO noted that this was subject to not worsening delivery delays. At the same time, Neil Sorahan, the chief financial officer (CFO) of Ryanair, highlighted that the quality and frequency of deliveries had improved, yet there was always a risk of further delays.
“At this point in time, our focus has changed very much toward getting in the additional [737 MAX 8-200] aircraft that are left in the order book […] summer of next year, 2025.”
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Ryanair warned that any further delivery delays could worsen its situation in an already difficult fare environment.
Situation that has worsened
Since July 22, when Ryanair reported its Q1 FY2025 results, the situation at 
Boeing
has deteriorated sharply.
While the company welcomed a new CEO in August, with the new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, promising to reset the relationship between the company and its machinists, who, at that time, had an expiring contract on the horizon, the two sides have failed to come to an agreement.
As a result, the two machinists unions, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District Lodge 751 and District W24, have been on strike since September 13. No further talks between Boeing and IAM have been scheduled for the time being.
Photo: VDB Photos | Shutterstock
Boeing last delivered a 737 MAX on October 9, shipping a 737 MAX 8 to Turkey-based SunExpress
. The aircraft, registered as TC-SMP, had its first flight on August 22, which was several weeks before the strike began, according to ch-aviation data.
Ryanair received its last 737 MAX 8-200 on September 10, which followed a double delivery on September 9.
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