Ryanair orders 100 Boeing 737 MAX planes

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This was published 9 years ago

Ryanair orders 100 Boeing 737 MAX planes

The Boeing 737 MAX can fit in enough seats to hit Ryanair's 'sweet spot' according to boss Michael O'Leary.

The Boeing 737 MAX can fit in enough seats to hit Ryanair's 'sweet spot' according to boss Michael O'Leary.

Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, signed a deal on Monday to buy 100 Boeing Co 737 MAX jetliners for up to $US11 billion ($A11.8 billion), launching a new version of the single-aisle plane that will allow it to squeeze in more passengers and ramp up fare price wars.

The Irish airline also secured options on 100 more of the modified 737 MAX 8s, dubbed the 737 MAX 200 because it can seat up to 200 passengers, bringing the value of the deal to about $US22 billion, if all the options are exercised.

Ryanair's chief executive officer, Michael O'Leary, said he aimed for the airline to carry 150 million passengers a year by 2024, up from an earlier target of 120 million and up from the about 82 million passengers it carried in 2013. He said Ryanair intends to exercise all the options because the 200 new planes are key to achieving its target growth.

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Ryanair already is the largest airline in Europe, and O'Leary said the new Boeing planes will further cut Ryanair's operating costs, allowing it to take market share from legacy carriers such as Lufthansa, SAS, British Airways and Alitalia.

"It means that we're going to expand and grow very strongly in Europe, both in new markets and in going in and taking traffic away from incumbent carriers," he said at a press conference in New York where he and the chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Ray Conner, signed the deal.

"I hope it will hasten in an era of a new price war in Europe over the next 10 years, which like all the old price wars, Ryanair will win."

O'Leary said the new planes, which will have two additional doors, will seat eight more passengers than the 737-800 models currently in Ryanair's fleet. The planes reduce fuel consumption by about 18 percent compared with current models, and with the additional seats the cost would be about 20 percent lower, O'Leary said.

O'Leary said the extra seats would generate about 1 million euros of additional revenue per plane per year, most of which will go to the bottom line.

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Ryanair will pay a "modest" premium for the planes, O'Leary said, but the extra cost "is truly justified by the seats and engine economics."

Conner characterized the premium as "huge," but neither executive would detail pricing. The 737 MAX 8 has a list price of $104 million, but airlines typically negotiate steep discounts.

AIRBUS SAYS EXTRA SEATS COME AT A COST

O'Leary said he had pressed Airbus and Boeing for 10 years about a larger single-aisle plane, believing that the 200-seat size is the "sweet spot" for low-cost carriers.

The Airbus A320 has 180 seats compared with 189 for the 737-800, and it couldn't be reconfigured to add the additional capacity that Ryanair sought, he said.

Airbus said the MAX 200 configuration would remove three of eight galley trolleys - the carts used for serving drinks and meals - to make way for more seats, leaving only five trolleys for 200 passengers. "Even low-cost carriers need more than that if they are serious about on-board sales and ancillary revenues," Airbus spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said.

Airbus said seats on the the Ryanair MAX 200 would be spaced more closely, with less legroom than on the A320. O'Leary said that by using new, slim seats, the spacing is about the same.

Airbus also said the MAX 200's additional doors would increase the plane's weight, reducing its fuel-cost advantage.

"Even with 200 seats in the 737 MAX and 189 in the Airbus A320neo, the Boeing aircraft has significantly inferior per-seat fuel burn," Greczyn said.

Last year Ryanair placed a $15.6 billion order for 175 Boeing 737-800 jets. O'Leary said in July he would keep that order, even as he studied the higher-density MAX version.

Reuters reported on Friday that Ryanair was in advanced talks to order at least 100 MAX jetliners.

Boeing's Conner said low-cost carriers could eventually make up 35 per cent of the market for single-aisle airplanes. Boeing's chief 737 competitor, Airbus Group's A320, also is getting refreshed with new engines.

O'Leary said the new MAX jets would not allow Ryanair to offer transatlantic service, because the range is not sufficient to reach enough U.S. cities.

Ryanair has a plan to operate a long-haul service as a subsidiary, but needs 30 to 50 long-haul aircraft to make it work.

"The availability (of those jets) just isn't there for another four or five years," O'Leary said.

Reuters

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