Low cost carrier Ryanair will transport less passengers than projected this year because of delivery delays of the Boeing MAX 8200. Instead of 205 million passengers, the airline will probably only carry 200 million during the financial year starting in April 2024. The news comes not long after Ryanair had to adapt its passenger forecast for this winter, an issue that was also due to delivery delays for its aircraft.
“We were supposed to have 27 aircraft delivered prior to Christmas, we finished up getting 11. We’re supposed to have 57 aircraft delivered to us by the end of April, and we think we’d be lucky to get 50 by the end of June”, Rynanair’s Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary, told the Financial Times.
In his statement, O’Leary is talking about the Boeing MAX 8200 planes. Those planes are especially built for Ryanair and designed to accommodate more passengers in a high-density configuration. To be precise, the variant can carry up to 197 passengers, partly thanks to the Zodiac Z110 slimline seats.
For the year up to March 2024, the delays mean that the low cost carrier would be able to transport 183.5 million passengers instead of the initially projected 185 million. Not a great outcome for Ryanair, which sees its year-on-year growth brought down to less than 10%. For the peak summer travel season in the coming financial year, the passenger loss will be even bigger.
“So we’re going to be left five, seven, maybe 10 aircraft short for the peak summer season this year,” O’Leary told the Financial Times.”It costs us, if you’re talking being down 5 million on 205 million passengers . . . probably two, two and a half per cent of profits.”
In the interview, Ryanair’s CEO also commented about the Boeing 737 MAX 9, which was involved in the Alaska Airlines incident earlier this January. O’Leary urges Boeing to significantly improve its quality control. Although Ryanair doesn’t have the specific configuration in its fleet, the CEO was very clear about what he thinks of the matter: “The 737 is fine. But it doesn’t need these kind of short-term reputational issues.”
