Ryanair will take any delayed or cancelled B737 MAX aircraft ordered by United Airlines, Michael O’Leary has said.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary hopes to acquire B737-10s, potentially in exchange for Airbus A320s that United Airlines is seeking to buy back.
“Airbus are out trying to buy back some of the delivery slots from some of their A320s from the lessors and some of their customers offensively to provide aircraft to United in the States. So, I hope they are very successful, and I hope therefore as a result, we could walk away with a load of B737-10s because we will be the first ones out there looking for additional MAX 10 for delivery in 2026 to 2027, if we could get them,”
O’Leary expressed confidence in Boeing’s CEO and team to improve the company’s standing after an improvement in quality in the last 12 aircraft deliveries to Ryanair, completed in December 2023. He said United’s comments were “not helpful” and “while the recent MAX 9 grounding was a disappointing setback, we don’t expect it to affect the MAX 8 fleet or the MAX 10 certification”.
Ryanair expects to receive 174 B737-8-200s by late June 2024 (plus 50 from Summer ’23), slightly below its contracted deliveries, with a possibility of further delays.
Ryanair expects to take deliveries of around 50 aircraft in 2024, down from the 57 projected initially.
Ryanair has orders for 219 Boeing aircraft, 150xB737-10 and 61xB737-8-200s.
The current fleet comprises 397xB737-800s, 141xB737-8-200s, 1xB737-700, and 28xA320-200 flagged under Lauda.
