Ryanair may pare growth plans over 737 grounding

Bloomberg

Ryanair Holdings Plc will need to pare back its growth plans for next summer if the grounding of the Boeing Co 737 Max drags on late into this year.
Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary is set to meet with Boeing in the next two weeks, when the discounter will push for a specific date for the plane’s return to service, O’Leary told reporters in Brussels. Boeing is currently indicating the Max should be flying again by the end of September, he said.
“We have to work with the dates we’re given from Boeing, it’s just we don’t at the moment have that much faith in the dates we’re being given,” O’Leary said. “We need a delivery schedule: When is the aircraft going to be back flying? And we need a date, not some kind of speculation.”
Boeing has been in crisis mode since regulators grounded the best-selling Max in March, after two crashes killed 346 people.
Ryanair is the largest customer of a new version, outfitted with more seats, dubbed the Max 200. The budget carrier had been preparing to take the first of 135 planes on order when Max flights were halted worldwide.
Signs that the Max’s planned reentry into service is slipping were echoed by Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA. Chief Financial Officer Geir Karlsen said that its Max jets now won’t return to the skies before October at the earliest, after previously being guided for the end of August.
The carrier expects that it will take Boeing about two additional months to have the new model ready for deliveries after the grounding is lifted. So if the Max returns to service in September, Ryanair should begin receiving its first Max-200 planes by the end of November.