Ireland’s Ryanair has said that it will have to cancel flights for the summer.
The airline announced that just 40 of the 57 scheduled Boeing 737 MAX 8200 planes will arrive by the end of June, forcing it to make “minor schedule changes.”
It follows the mid-air blowout of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 on January 5. This led to serious worries about quality control at Boeing, which caused its manufacturing rate to be restricted.
The current summer itinerary for Ryanair is contingent upon the airline securing at least 50.
“Ryanair will now have to reduce approximately 10 aircraft lines of flying for the peak summer months of July, August, and September,” the carrier stated in a statement.
“In light of Ryanair’s 600 aircraft fleet, this will result in some minor schedule changes and a reduction in frequencies on current routes rather than the elimination of new routes.”
It further stated that at certain of its “higher cost airports,” including Dublin, Milan Malpensa, Warsaw Modlin, and four airports in Portugal, schedule reductions have already been put into place.
A large void where the paneled door once stood due to an explosion on an Alaska Airlines aircraft
(The National Board for Highway Safety,)
“We are very disappointed at these latest Boeing delivery delays,” stated Michael O’Leary, group chief executive of Ryanair, “but we continue to work with Boeing to maximize the number of new B737 aircraft we receive by the end of June, which we can confidently release for sale to customers during the summer 2024 peak.”
“In order to assist Boeing in reducing their delivery backlog, we will now collaborate with Boeing to accept delayed aircraft deliveries in August and September of 2024.
“We apologize for any inconvenience these enforced summer 2024 schedule changes may have caused to some of our customers and our airport partners.”
In contrast to the previous prediction of 205 million passengers, Mr. O’Leary stated that this would lower the number of passengers it will carry in the year ending in March 2025 to “between 198 million to 200 million.”
The airline anticipates carrying 184 million passengers by the end of this month.
Speaking further, Mr. O’Leary said, “We are collaborating with our airport partners to provide them with some growth, although later in September and October as opposed to July and August.
These shoulder months are the only times when this traffic growth can be provided at reduced fares.
“Ryanair is fully committed to assisting Boeing in overcoming these short-term obstacles, and we have faith that their senior leadership team, headed by CEO Dave Calhoun and CFO Brian West, will find solutions to these production hold-ups and quality control problems in both Wichita and Seattle.
The grounding of up to 20% of the A320 fleets of our Airbus competitors in Europe, along with the most recent Boeing supply delays, which unfortunately are out of Ryanair’s control, are expected to result in more limited capacity and marginally higher air fares for travelers in Europe in the summer of 2024.
“Therefore, in order to guarantee the best airfares for summer 2024, we strongly advise all Ryanair customers to book as soon as possible.”
