Ryanair announces massive deal to buy 300 planes from Boeing

Airline said the investment, along with its order for its remaining Gamechanger aircrafts with Boeing, would create 10,000 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew, and engineers

The deal is expected to be worth more than €36.4bn and will need to be approved by shareholders. 

Ryanair has announced a major investment in its fleet, ordering 300 new 737-MAX-10 aircraft from US airplane giant Boeing in a deal worth more than $40bn (€36.4bn).

The deal includes a firm commitment for 150 of these planes and the option for 150 more, with Ryanair expected to take delivery between 2027 and 2033. The airline is claiming this is the largest order ever placed by an Irish company for US-made goods.

However, due to the size and scale of the deal, it requires approval from shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting, which is due to take place on September 14.

Ryanair expects 50% of these deliveries will replace its older Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft. These new aircrafts have 228 seats, 21% more than the previous model.

Ryanair said the investment, along with its order for its remaining Gamechanger aircrafts with Boeing, would create 10,000 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew, and engineers as it targets growing traffic numbers by 80%, to 300m passengers a year by March 2034.

Ryanair said more seats, as well as the greater fuel efficiency of these planes, would enable it to “further widen” its unit-cost advantage over its competitors.

New jobs

Chief executive of Ryanair Group Michael O’Leary said the new jobs would be located across all of Europe’s main economies, where Ryanair is currently the number one and number two airline.

“In addition to delivering significant revenue and traffic growth across Europe, we expect these new, larger, more efficient, greener, aircraft to drive further unit cost savings, which will be passed on to passengers in lower air fares.

Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun called the partnership with the Irish airline “one of the most productive in commercial aviation history”.

“We are committed to delivering for Ryanair and helping Europe’s largest airline group achieve its goals by offering its customers the lowest fares in Europe.” 

While the deal marks a huge step-up in the relationship between Ryanair and Boeing, in recent weeks the airline has been impacted by delays in the production process at the airplane-maker.

The airline had been expecting to take delivery of 24 planes from Boeing between April and June but the company had to pause production after a problem was identified in the production process used by its supplier Spirit Aerosystems.

After the pause was announced, Ryanair said it would likely trim some flights in August due to delivery delays from Boeing, but there would be no material impact on customers.