Several routes will be affected in the schedule.
Ryanair have apologised to customers after they announced cuts to their winter schedule due to a delay in deliveries of new aircraft from Boeing.
The airline had expected to receive 27 aircraft between September and December. However, production delays in Wichita, Kansas, on top of delivery delays in Seattle, mean they now only expect to receive 14 aircraft from October.
In a statement released today, Thursday, September 28, Ryanair say they are “working with Boeing to try to accelerate deliveries in the Jan to May 2024 period so that it can enter the Summer 2024 peak travel season with all 57 new Boeing aircraft deliveries as expected.”
Ryanair said that customers booked on affected flights will be sent emails in order to rearrange alternate flights or receive refunds.
The airline has made a number of adjustments to its winter 2023 schedule, including reducing the number of aircraft serving Charleroi, Belgium by 3.
Dublin based aircraft will also be reduced by 2, while 5 aircraft will be replaced at 4 Italian bases, including Bergamo, Naples and Pisa.
There will also be aircraft reductions in East Midlands, Porto, and Cologne.
Ryanair apologise for “unavoidable reductions” in winter schedule
Ryanair apologised in their statement for what they called “unavoidable reductions” in their schedule. The airline also said they had no spare aircrafts as scheduled maintenance is necessary across their full fleet of over 550 aircraft in order to have them all serviceable for its “largest ever summer 2024 schedule.”
Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair said in the statement:
“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 reaccommodation 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.”
O’Leary also stated that he does not expect the delivery delays to “materially affect our full year traffic target of 193.5m.”
However, he said that if further delays occur, the target number may have to be reassessed and possibly adjusted downwards.
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