Ryanair sees risk to 2020 growth if 737 MAX grounded beyond November
The boss of Europe’s Ryanair Holdings (
RYA.I) warned on Wednesday the impact of the prolonged grounding of Boeing Co’s (
BA.N) 737 MAX on the airline’s growth plans may start to spill over to next summer if the airplane is not flying again by November.
“Boeing are telling us at the moment they expect to be back flying by the end of September,” O’Leary said in an interview on the sidelines of a meeting of the European airlines lobby A4E, which he also chairs.
“I think it will fly before the end of this year. I am not sure they will meet the end of September date, but I take comfort from the fact that it seems that now the American, European, Brazilian and Canadian regulators are working together,” he added.
“The challenge for us is that we need to see the plane back flying by the end of September, October, November at the latest, so as not to disrupt our growth for the summer of 2020,” O’Leary said.
Ryanair can take delivery of no more than six to eight planes a month because of the complexity of the delivery process and the availability of trained MAX pilots.