Boeing and Ryanair announced the airline is placing a firm order for 75 additional 737 MAX aircraft, increasing its order book to 210 aircraft . Ryanair again selected the 737 8-200, a higher-capacity version of the 737-8, citing the aircraft’s additional seats and improved fuel efficiency and environmental performance.
Boeing CEO & President Dave Calhoun said “Ryanair will continue to play a leading role in our industry when Europe recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and air traffic returns to growth across the continent. We are gratified that Ryanair is once again placing its confidence in the Boeing 737 family and building their future fleet with this enlarged firm order
Boeing remains focused on safely returning the full 737 fleet to service and on delivering the backlog of airplanes to Ryanair and our other customers. We firmly believe in this airplane, and we will continue the work to re-earn the trust of all of our customers”
Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said “Ryanair’s board and people are confident that our customers will love these new aircraft. Passengers will enjoy the new interiors, more generous leg room, lower fuel consumption and quieter noise performance. And, most of all, our customers will love the lower fares, which these aircraft will enable Ryanair to offer starting in 2021 and for the next decade, as Ryanair leads the recovery of Europe’s aviation and tourism industries”
Ryanair and our partner airports across Europe will – with these environmentally efficient aircraft – rapidly restore flights and schedules, recover lost traffic and help the nations of Europe recover their tourism industries, and get young people back to work across the cities, beaches and ski resorts of the European Union”
Ryanair stated in June 2018 SEC 20F filing that “The new aircraft will be used on new and existing routes to grow Ryanair’s business”.
The Ryanair Group is the launch customer for the high-capacity 737 8-200 variant, having placed its first order for 100 aircraft and 100 options in late 2014, followed by firm orders of 10 aircraft in 2017 and 25 in 2018.
The 737 8-200 aircraft will be fitted with 197 economy class seats 4% more than the 737-800 with the airframe is 2.2 meters longer than the A320neo. The aircraft will be configured with Boeing Sky Interior, LED lighting and larger pivoting overhead stowage bins delivering 16% lower fuel consumption per seat than the 737-800 aircraft with 5% lower operating costs than 737 MAX 8.
Image courtesy of Ryanair
Irish Aviation Research Institute © 4 December 2020 All Rights Reserved.
