Here’s how Boeing’s delays are holding back Ryanair
Ryanair will cut flights this winter due to Boeing delivery delays. The U.S. planemaker is fixing the latest supplier-dependent technical issue on the 737 Max
Ryanair will reduce winter flights due to Boeing.
The Irish low-cost airline – engaged in a tug-of-war with the government in our country over the high-flying decree – yesterday announced cuts to its winter program due to delays in the delivery of Boeing planes.
In fact, last month the US aircraft manufacturer identified a defect on an element of the 737 Max that "does not represent a safety issue", but it will still stop deliveries of its flagship plane again. The defective parts were supplied by Spirit AeroSystems, the supplier that builds about 70% of narrowbody jet airframes. Already last April, Boeing had to slow down production and deliveries of the 737 when it discovered a problem with a fuselage component also supplied by Spirit AeroSystems.
Now, this new Boeing hiccup will impact the winter calendar of the largest European airline by number of passengers.
However, the Michael O'Leary-led low-cost carrier said its full-year traffic forecasts had not "yet" been affected by Boeing's delays.
All the details.
BOEING'S DELAYS STOPPING RYANAIR
Ryanair said in a statement that it expected to take delivery of 27 planes between September and December.
But due to production delays at the Spirit Fuselage plant in Wichita, Kansas, combined with delays in repairs and deliveries from Boeing in Seattle, it is now expected to receive only 14 planes during the three-month period, Reuters reports.
FLIGHTS CANCELED (ALSO FROM FIVE ITALIAN AIRPORTS)
The flight cancellations will take effect from the end of October and will be communicated to all affected passengers via email in the coming days, Ryanair said.
The Irish carrier said it would cut three planes from those based at Charleroi Airport in Belgium, two from Dublin and five from Italian airports, including Bergamo, Naples and Pisa. There will also be aircraft reductions at East Midlands Airport in the UK, Porto in Portugal and Cologne, Germany.
TRAFFIC FORECASTS
“At this point, we do not expect these delivery delays to materially affect our full-year traffic target of 183.5 million,” said group chief executive Michael O'Leary. “But if the delays worsen or extend further into the January-March 2024 period, we may have to review this figure and possibly adjust it slightly downwards,” admitted Ryanair's number one.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT SUMMER?
Furthermore, the Irish carrier had scheduled the delivery of 57 Boeing aircraft between September 2023 and May 2024.
“Ryanair is working with Boeing to seek to accelerate deliveries in the January to May 2024 period so that it can enter the peak summer 2024 travel season with all deliveries of Boeing's 57 new aircraft as scheduled,” Ryanair said. airline in its note.
O'LEARY'S POSITION
The disruption is particularly troublesome for Ryanair as it needs all the capacity it can get to benefit from the post-pandemic travel boom, CEO O'Leary further noted.
“We're really concerned,” O'Leary said of Boeing's delivery delays. “Most of the delays here are due to manufacturing errors, quality control errors in Wichita or Seattle, and they need to eliminate those. They make great planes, but quality control and manufacturing problems have become a feature of the last couple of years.”
On the other hand, Ryanair is one of Boeing's major European customers. Just this year the carrier placed a historic order for 150 of Boeing's largest 737 Max models, with an additional 150 options. However, O'Leary has never spared public criticism of the American aircraft manufacturer for delays or prices .
As Bloomberg recalls, the airline had already lowered its full-year traffic estimate in July to about 183.5 million passengers, down from a previous forecast of 185 million, also citing Boeing's delays.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/ecco-come-i-ritardi-di-boeing-frenano-ryanair/ on Thu, 28 Sep 2023 09:38:40 +0000.