According to Ryanair, between September and December, the airline expected to receive 27 Boeing aircraft, however, due to “production delays at the Spirit Fuselage facility in Wichita, combined with Boeing repairs and delivery delays in Seattle,” the carrier will only receive 14 planes between October and December.
“Ryanair is working with Boeing to try to accelerate deliveries in the January to May 2024 period so that it can enter the summer 2024 peak travel season with all deliveries of 57 new Boeing aircraft as expected,” explains the airline.
Delays in deliveries of Boeing planes led Ryanair to adjust and reduce its winter calendar, which involves cuts in operations at the Charleroi bases, which will have three fewer planes based, as well as in Dublin (two fewer planes), and at four Italian bases, including Bergamo, Naples and Pisa, which will have five fewer planes than last winter.
The cuts in Ryanair's winter operations also affect Portugal, with the airline revealing that “there will also be aircraft reductions in the East Midlands (UK), Porto and Cologne”.
Despite saying that these reductions are “inevitable”, Ryanair apologises to its passengers and explains that “it has no spare aircraft this winter, as scheduled maintenance is required” across the carrier's entire fleet, which has more than 550 aircraft so all aircraft “are operational for their longest summer schedule in 2024”.