Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary has decided to express his disappointment in what they’ve seen of the 737MAX so far.  He mentions that what they’ve seen from the A320NEO so far, they’re impressed but what they’ve seen of the 737MAX so far does not.  O’Leary, not surprisingly offers that anybody buying aircraft right now is nuts given the prices. 

But the world has changed.  It’s not the late 1990’s or early 2000’s and manufacturers are not struggling to sell aircraft.  To the contrary, they are struggling to meet demand based on orderbooks.  Ryanair got stunning prices for their original massive orders.  Enough so that they could buy them, operate them for a few years and sell them at a profit.  Neither Boeing nor Airbus is interested in making such deals anymore and rightfully so. 

Airlines put off buying large quantities of aircraft for quite a long time and now the legacy airlines not only want them, they need them.  If O’Leary and Company wish to continue to operate a successful ULCC, they’ll be lining up to buy them as well because they do offer the kind of incremental gain in efficiency that is going to make the world’s legacy airlines much more competitive with ULCC’s like Ryanair. 

The truth is, I think the Airbus A320NEO does fit Ryanair’s needs a bit better these days.  But that would require a fleet change that would take years to accomplish and with A320NEO delivery positions reaching “unobtanium” levels for the next decade, the 737MAX probably does offer the best option given their position.  One thing is sure, the COMAC 919 isn’t going to deliver what Ryanair needs and certainly not on time.  Airbus can’t build more even faster to meet the demand on the A320NEO even with some airlines orders going away.  So I’m not sure why O’Leary wants to make an enemy of Boeing.

The truth is, Boeing will be happy to sell to O’Leary and take his abuse while they do it.  They’re just not going to give away aircraft anymore and it appears that it will take O’Leary a while longer to realize the position he and his airline are in.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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