Ryanair boosts Boeing order to expand routes

Ryanair has announced that it will buy five more planes than expected, which will allow the company to offer more routes in 2015.

The announcement follows a tough few days trading in Ryanair’s share price, which suffered a 5% fall following a note from Investec which cut the airlines profit outlook due to lack of visibility.

Michael O’Leary’s airline hit back by announcing that they were increasing their order of Boeing 737-800s from 175 to 180.

The low-cost airline will now take 21 aircraft deliveries (up from 17) between September 2014 and July 2015, which will enable the airline to open more routes and offer additional frequencies on existing routes for summer 2015.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary, said that he was glad that the aircraft could be delivered at such short notice.

“We are delighted that our partners Boeing have identified five new aircraft slots (four of them before the 2015 summer peak), which allows Ryanair to increase our order book from 175 to 180 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft,” he said.

President and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Ray Conner, said that Ryanair has grown to become Boeing’s largest buyer of 737-800s. “Ryanair and Boeing share a relationship that spans 20 years,” he said.