“We are still struggling with delivery delays from Boeing. It’s hampered our traffic and schedule growth this year,” he said.
“It will hamper it next year as well. It’s just something we have to work our way through. We are hopeful of getting 50 aircraft this winter from Boeing, or before peak summer 2025.”
Mr O’Leary said Ryanair still has engineers at Boeing’s facilities in Seattle and Wichita as the aeroplane maker continues to struggle with deliveries.
“Boeing have yet to catch up with their monthly production targets, and it’s the failure to catch up with monthly production targets that’s hampering our growth,” Mr O’Leary added.
The Ryanair boss said he would like to base some of the new aircraft he expects to take delivery of by next summer in Dublin. However, he said because of the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, any growth would go elsewhere.
Releasing quarterly results in July, Boeing said its commercial unit delivered 92 jets in the three months to the end of June.
Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary. Photo: Getty
The division’s revenue totalled $6bn in the period, and its operating margin was -11.9pc. That margin primarily reflected lower aircraft deliveries and expected higher costs, the manufacturer said.
Boeing had a backlog of more than 5,400 aircraft on their order books at the end of the second quarter, valued at $437bn. The company this week said it delivered 40 aircraft last month, which compared to just five delivered in August last year.
“We have quality control engineers on the ground in Wichita, where they make the hulls and fuselages, and also in Seattle, where they finish off the planes,” said Mr O’Leary.
The quality of what’s being produced is now top-class
“They believe that the management changes over the last 12 months have seen significant improvements in the quality of the fuselages being brought to Seattle,” he added.
“They’re now defect-free. Previously, they were moving fuselages with defects to be rectified in Seattle. The quality of what’s being produced is now top-class,” according to the Ryanair boss.
During summer, Mr O’Leary questioned the quality of some of the Max jets that Ryanair took delivery of after the Covid pandemic.
“We were getting aircraft with lots of little bits and problems,” said Mr O’Leary at the time.
“On post-Covid aircraft that we had taken delivery of, the quality of the aircraft on delivery was shoddy.
“When we take in a new aircraft here, we do a thorough examination for about 48 hours. Post-Covid, those examinations and repairs were taking us between seven and 10 days,” he said.
Ryanair is Boeing’s biggest customer in Europe. Since production improved at Boeing, he said post-delivery inspection times were back down to 48 hours.
Last month, Mr O’Leary told the Reuters news agency that there was a risk Ryanair would take delivery of just 20 to 25 of the 737 Boeing Max jets it has on order before next summer, compared with the 29 that are scheduled for delivery.