Ryanair has pledged to buy up to 200 737 Max aircraft from Boeing between 2019 and 2023 in a deal worth €17 billion.
The Irish airline agreed the deal with the US aerospace giant as it prepared to take delivery later this month of the first of an order of 180 Boeing 737-800s, worth about $12 billion (€9.3 billion), that it had ordered last year.
Ryanair is the “launch customer” for the 737 Max 200, which will have 197 seats. This is eight more than the 800 version flown by the company, which will give it scope to earn 4 per cent more revenue from ticket sales from each flight.
Firm order
Announcing details of the latest agreement, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary and his Boeing counterpart, Ray Conner, said it consisted of a firm order for 100 737 Max 200s with the option to take a further 100.
Mr O’Leary signalled that the airline was likely to buy all 200 craft despite placing a firm order for only half that number. “For those who like to nitpick about options, we have never not taken all the options that we have ordered,” he said.
Assuming that the airline takes delivery of all 200 aircraft, it will increase its fleet from about 300 to 520 by its 2024 financial year – which begins in March 2023 – and will fly 150 million passengers, almost double last year’s 82 million.
Ryanair said yesterday that the deal was worth $22 billion (€17 billion) on the basis of Boeing’s current list prices.
The company has not previously revealed full details of what it pays for its aircraft, but has always said that it gets a discount on the catalogue price.
However, Mr O’Leary said Ryanair was paying a small premium for the extra seats on the Max 200. He described the aircraft as a “game-changer” for the airline, as each aircraft could potentially deliver €1 million a year to the company’s bottom line.
Mr O’Leary said the extra efficiencies the craft could deliver justified the premium that the airline was paying for them.
In a statement, he said the craft would allow Ryanair to lower costs and airfares while improving customer experience. “As many of Europe’s flag carriers cut capacity on short- haul routes, Ryanair looks forward to using these new Boeing 737 Max 200 aircraft to grow at many more of Europe’s primary airports,” he said.
Mr Conner described the aircraft as the “perfect fit” for Ryanair and predicted that it would play a significant role in enabling the airline to continue to expand its operations.
