Ryanair Announces Winter Schedule Cuts

Ryanair, a multinational low-cost airline and the No.1 airline in Europe, has announced a number of reductions in the Winter 2023 schedule due to delays in Boeing aircraft delivery during the period between September and December.
Ryanair was expecting to receive 27 aircraft between September and December, However, production delays at the Spirit Fuselage facility in Wichita combined with Boeings repair and delivery delays in Seattle, has lowered that number to only 14 aircraft. They will receive these 14 aircraft between October and December. 

Ryanair and Boeing are working together to accelerate deliveries during the period between January and May of 2024 in the hopes of entering the Summer 2024 peak travel season with all 57 new Boeing aircraft deliveries as expected.

These delivery delays compelled Ryanair to make some adjustments to its Winter 2023 schedule this week. They will be reducing the number of Charleroi-based aircraft by 3, Dublin-based aircraft by 2, and will reduce 5 aircraft across 4 Italian bases, including Bergamo, Naples and Pisa. There will also be aircraft reductions in East Midlands, Porto, and Cologne.

Ryanair apologises for these unavoidable reductions in its Winter 2023 schedule. 

Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, said, “We are working closely with Boeing and their supplier, Spirit, to minimise these delivery delays. It is deeply regrettable that production problems in Wichita, and in Seattle, have yet again delayed Boeing’s contracted deliveries to Ryanair this winter. 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. These flight cancellations will take effect from the end of Oct and will be communicated to all affected passengers by email over the coming days. Passengers will be offered re-accommodation on alternative flights or full refunds as they so wish. We apologise sincerely to passengers for any inconvenience caused by these delivery delays this winter.

At this early date, we do not expect these delivery delays will materially affect our full-year traffic target of 183.5m, but if the delays worsen or extend further into the Jan to Mar 2024 period, we may have to revisit this figure and possibly adjust it slightly downward.”

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