Ryanair: ‘Boeing delays have forced us’ to slash passenger forecasts
Ryanair has slashed its traffic forecasts as a result of ongoing delivery delays from the embattled US planemaker, Boeing.
The budget airline said it no longer expects Boeing to deliver sufficient aircraft to meet a 2026 target of 210m passengers.
“Boeing delays have forced us to revise our full-year traffic target to 206m, just three per cent growth,” Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said in a statement.
“We’re hopeful that the remaining 29 Gamechangers in our 210 order book will deliver before March 2027, enabling us to recover this delayed traffic growth.”
It came even as Ryanair reported massive jump in third quarter post-tax profit from €15m to €149m (£125.3m), ahead of analyst expectations.
Revenue rose 10 per cent to €2.7bn, driven by a nine per cent increase in traffic to 45m. Load factor, a measure of occupied seats per flight, was 92 per cent.
While Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers continues to benefit from strong travel demand in Europe, it has been particularly impacted by the troubles at Boeing over the last year.
Ryanair is the Seattle manufacturer’s biggest customer and placed a colossal £31bn order for around 300 Boeing 737 Max 10 jets in May 2023.
It warned on Monday fourth quarter trading would be “very challenging,” largely because of a late Easter, which falls at the end of April this year.
“At this stage, we are cautiously guiding full-year profit after tax in a range of €1.55bn to €1.61bn.,” O’Leary said.
“The final profit after tax outcome remains subject to avoiding adverse external developments between now and the end of March, including the risk of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, further Boeing delivery delays and air traffic control mismanagement and short-staffing here in Europe.”