Ryanair Holdings Plc, the renowned Irish budget airline, announced that The Boeing Company is anticipated to deliver merely 40 of the 57 B737-MAX8200 aircraft that were scheduled to be delivered by the end of June 2024.
The company's CEO, Michael O'Leary, conveyed his regret for any inconvenience these unavoidable changes to their Summer 2024 schedule might cause to customers and airport collaborators. The revisions will pare down Ryanair's annual traffic growth from an expected 184 million passengers in the financial year 2024 to a number ranging between 198 to 200 million passengers in the financial year 2025. Although slightly delayed, Ryanair aims to ensure some growth for their airport partners in September and October, as opposed to the previously expected months of July and August.
Ryanair's current summer 2024 schedule was anchored on the delivery of a minimum of 50 B737 aircraft. However, owing to the revised delivery, the company will need to trim around ten aircraft lines of flying for the peak summer months of July, August, and September in 2024.
Further changes to the summer 2024 schedule are foreseen to downsize Ryanair's passenger traffic to just under 200 million passengers by March 2025, as opposed to the initial target of 205 million.
The delivery setback will entail minor alterations to Ryanair's vast 600 aircraft fleet's schedule, leading to reduced frequencies on pre-existing routes instead of eliminating new routes completely.
Looking ahead, Ryanair predicts that the latest delay in Boeing deliveries, paired with the grounding of up to 20 percent of competing European Airbus A320 fleets, will result in a more restricted capacity. This, in turn, is expected to result in slightly higher airfares for European consumers during the summer of 2024.
