Ryanair have warned delays to deliveries of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft will reduce its services. The airline has plans to cut or close some of its bases at airports as a result.
All Boeing 737 Max planes were grounded worldwide after two crashes involving the models. A total of 189 people were killed on a Lion Air flight last year and before this 157 people died on an Ethiopian airline flight.
Ryanair was not using any of the planes at the time of the accident but has 135 planes of the model on order. The first five of these orders are due to be delivered in autumn.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “Ryanair remains committed to the B737 MAX aircraft, and now expects that it will return to flying service before the end of 2019, however the exact date of this return remains uncertain.
“Boeing is hoping that a certification package will be submitted to regulators by September with a return to service shortly thereafter.
“We believe it would be prudent to plan for that date to slip by some months, possibly as late as December.”
Ryanair expects to carry 157 million passengers in the year to March 2021 rather than 162 million which cuts their summer grown by 4%.
It was reported that one of the two Ryanair 737 Max aircraft had been painted with the label ‘737-8200’ rather than ‘737 MAX’, as shown below.
#Boeing 737 Max ordered by #Ryanair undergoes name changehttp://sco.lt/… pic.twitter.com/awftuQA4hG
— GiroMaxi (@GiroMaxi) July 15, 2019
Boeing is not ruling out the rebranding of the 737 Max in the future but it is starting to be referred to in a different name. Boeing is yet to convince regulators that its changes to the airplanes software is enough to ensure the safety and not cause another crash. The US Federal Aviation Administration said the a new flaw had been uncovered and will take until September to fix.
Mr O’Leary said: “We are starting a series of discussions with our airports to determine which of Ryanair’s under-performing or loss-making bases should suffer these short term cuts and/or closures from November 2019.
“We will also be consulting with our people and our unions in planning and implementing these base cuts and closures, which are directly caused by the B737 MAX delivery delays to the B737 MAX programme.”
