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Boeing’s 737 Max program got a big boost Thursday with a historic order from Ryanair for 75 more than what the manufacturer now calls the 737-8-200, increasing the European LCC’s Max order book for the variant. from 197 high-density seats to 210 Signed during an online press conference from Boeing’s Washington, DC offices, the contract states that deliveries will begin early next spring and run through December 2024.
Ryanair expects to take on 25-30 planes in time for the European summer flying season, according to CEO Michael O’Leary, who noted that the airline’s fleet plans assume passenger traffic will increase to between 95. and 130 million from just 35 million. this year. In 2019, the airline carried 149 million passengers. Over the next five years, Ryanair plans to expand the size of its fleet from 450 to 600 aircraft and increase its traffic to 200 million passengers.
O’Leary, who valued the incremental order at about $ 7 billion, called the discount on the sale and Boeing’s compensation for missed deliveries due to the Max grounding as “modest.”
“My only complaint today is that I think the discount should have been higher,” O’Leary joked. The head of Ryanair added that the airline’s shareholders raised $ 1.25 billion in the bond market in September in preparation for financing the purchase.
Boeing CEO David Calhoun insisted the company will not attempt to artificially fill its Max order book with unsustainably low prices, noting that it will allow the aircraft’s performance to “speak for itself.”
“I’m not worried about price discounts as incentives to move planes,” Calhoun said. “It will take patience on the part of Boeing, which we have… We strongly believe in a recovery and therefore we will be patient. So we don’t feel the need to discount our way into the market. “
For Boeing, the deal marks Max’s largest order since the plane was grounded in March 2019, following the plane’s twin crashes that claimed 346 lives. “We have had a difficult year,” Calhoun said. “Miguel [O’Leary] he visited me during my first weeks at work in January. At that time there was no Covid … there was no discussion about Covid, it was a discussion about security. And from that moment, every two weeks [we have] I have spoken on the phone to discuss the progression of this aircraft through the regulatory process and reaffirming our faith in the aircraft and our commitment to safety, every step of the way, and our willingness to allow regulators to do anything and everything. what they wanted to do. this plane. “
On the subject of the apparent decision not to name the aircraft 737 Max in its press literature and during the sales announcement, Calhoun denied any effort to rebrand the product. “No brand change is taking place; There is nothing cute about the way we emphasize the 737 family because the Max is an aircraft within the 737 family, ”he said.
