The budget carrier on Thursday (28 September) said it had been told it will only receive 14 of the 27 new aircraft it had scheduled for delivery between September and December due to production issues at Boeing’s Kansas factory, as well as repair and delivery delays in Seattle.
This has resulted in Ryanair cutting the number of Brussels-based aircraft by three, while reducing the number of aircraft it has stationed in Dublin and in Italy by two and five respectively. Cuts will also take place at several other airports, including East Midlands, Porto and Cologne.
“These flight cancellations will take effect from the end of October, and will be communicated to all affected passengers by email over the coming days,” said chief executive Michael O’Leary.
“Passengers will be offered re-accommodation on alternative flights or full refunds as they so wish.”
O’Leary said the delivery delays will not affect Ryanair’s full-year traffic target of 183.5 million passengers.
“We are in regular dialogue with Boeing, and our primary objective is to ensure we get delivery of all 57 contracted B737 aircraft before the end of May 2024, so that Ryanair’s fleet can grow to over 600 aircraft for what will be our largest ever summer flight programme,” O’Leary added.
The announcement comes despite Ryanair launching on Wednesday (27 September) seven new winter routes from London airports – including Belfast, Tirana and Vigo – as well as adding frequency on 30 other routes.
The low-cost carrier has also announced it will base two new B737 aircraft at Stansted to support this 15% increase in London services.
