Ryanair buys more Boeing aircraft
David Browne eTN London
The budget airline Ryanair has placed an order for 140 aircraft with the American plane-maker, Boeing. 70 are firm orders for Boeing 737-800 planes valued at over US$4bn and 70 options. The first planes will be delivered between 2008 and 2012. The latest order brings the total Ryanair order book up to 225 firm aircraft purchases and 193 options, and represents increased confidence in Boeing in the face of stiff competition from the European plane-maker, Airbus.
Ryanair chairman, David Bonerman, said the Boeing 737-800 series was the most efficient narrow-body shorthaul aircraft in the world. “Since its introduction into the Ryan fleet in March 1999, it has transformed our technical reliability, making Ryanair the number one on-time major airline in Europe,” he said. “At the same time, the 737-800 has significantly reduced our unit operating costs and allowed us to reduce air fares each year for the past five years. With this new order and new pricing in place, Ryanair expects that unit operating costs (excluding fuel) will continue to fall each year for othe next five years.
 This will enable Ryanair to offer even lower fares and underpin our growth strategy as we plan to double traffic from 34 million passengers in 2005-06 to over 70 million passengers in 2011-12.”
By the end of 2005, Ryanair will have taken delivery of about 100 new Boeing 737-800s and the 70 new aircraft announced this week will result in the creation of more than 2,500 new highly paid jobs, mainly amongst pilots, cabin crew and engineers. Half of these jobs will be in Ryanair’s existing 12 European bases, with the remainder at ten or more new bases which Ryanair intends to open over the next seven years.
The latest US$4bn aircraft order is the result of a Ryanair-Boeing agreement on improved pricing. “Ryanair’s partnership with Boeing has been central to our successful growth as the lowest fare and lowest cost airline in Europe” said Mr Bonderman. “And thanks to our successful partnership with Boeing, we intend to become Europe’s largest airline by passenger traffic. We will do so by using the best shorthaul aircraft in the business – the Boeing 737-800 – by offering even lower fares to our passengers and by creating over 2,500 new jobs in existing and new bases all over Europe.”
 The deal with Boeing also includes an agreement on modifications to Ryanair’s entire fleet which will result in a two per cent reduction in fuel consumption, and improved support terms. Ryanair is confident that it will achieve the lowest per-seat operating cost in Europe.
Ryanair has come out top of the latest market share statistics verified by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority. Peter Sherrard, Ryanair’s head of communications said “Passengers all over Europe are voting with their feet for Ryainair’s lowest fares, best punctuality and highest frequency. Ryanair is the the passenger’s number one choise because competitors can’t match Ryanair’s low fares and superior service.”
February 28, 2005
Posted in: Airlines & Railways