Ryanair (RYA.I) expects further delay to its Boeing MAX 737 deliveries and may still be without the jets next summer, it said on Monday after half-year results that gave the Irish airline’s shares a 7% uplift.
While investors appeared to focus on the better than expected profit and fares, Europe’s largest budget carrier said it now expects to fly 157 million passengers in the year to March 31, 2021
That represents only 2.6% growth from the current financial year, its slowest in seven years. And further delays on the jets could reduce that to zero growth at an airline that has increased passenger numbers by more than 10% on average since 2014.
However, finance chief Neil Sorahan said there is “no risk at all” that the airline would fail to meet its target of flying 200 million passengers a year by March 2024.
Ryanair is one of Boeing’s biggest customers for the grounded MAX 737, with 210 on order, and said in July that it expected to be flying 30 of the planes next summer after taking its first delivery in January.
CEO Michael O’Leary on Monday said the company had lowered its estimate to 20 planes by next summer with “a real risk of none”.
“The risk of further delay is rising,” he said in a post-results video presentation, adding that he does not expect Boeing to achieve its target of getting the plane back in service in the United States by Christmas.