Ryanair boosts its fleet with 10 new Boeings

RYANAIR has boosted its fleet through the €0.5 billion acquisition of 10 new aircraft from Boeing.

The deal, which has a total value of about $700 million (€548m), will see Ryanair take delivery of the Boeing 737-800 jets in March, April and June of 2008 and will increase the low-fares airline’s fleet of this model to 117 planes.

The fleet expansion is also set to form a launch pad for more new route announcements at Ryanair in 2008. It has launched 67 new routes since the start of this year.

As part of the new deal with Boeing, Ryanair will also have the option to buy a further 169 aircraft between 2008 and 2014. The company said yesterday that it will buy another 142 new 737-800 planes over the next six years.

“Our no fuel surcharge guarantee is widening the gap between our low fares and the high prices of our fuel surcharging competitors and this is driving demand and attracting millions of additional passengers our way,” according to Ryanair’s chief financial officer and deputy chief executive Howard Millar in a statement released yesterday.

The company is remaining quiet as to the possible identity of additional routes, but adding a second base in Spain, or at least more routes to and from there — it currently operates a hub at Girona, near Barcelona, and flies to 13 other Spanish airports — could be high on the agenda.

“Spain would be a market on which we constantly keep an eye, but it’s far too early to say whether we’ll be expanding our reach there anytime soon. We can be working with around 50 airports at any one time, so it’s not possible to say exactly where we will be announcing new routes at this stage,” a company spokesperson said yesterday.

Spain is viewed as being something of a hotspot for international low-fares airlines.

Ryanair and EasyJet both have bases there and Spanair is looking to increase its market share in the country from 22% to 27%.