Ryanair will have to trim its July schedule because it expects the delivery of around 10 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to be delayed due to manufacturing issues, its group chief executive Michael O'Leary said today.
"We are beginning to look at schedules maybe being about 10 short for July. We'll get maybe 12 by the end of June and then we hope 12 by the end of July," Michael O'Leary said today.
He made his comments on the sidelines of the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Europe event in Wicklow today.
Ryanair had been due to receive 22 of the planes in June and two in July, he said.
"We will certainly have to trim some flights out of the system. I don't think there will be route cancellations," Mr O'Leary added.
Ryanair in a statement on Friday said it was assessing with Boeing how delays, related to certain components made by one of the US firm's main suppliers, would impact its schedule.
The focus of any cuts, Michael O'Leary said, would be on high-frequency routes such as those between Britain and Ireland.
Boeing has promised an updated delivery schedule by Friday, he said.
"So really we don't know where we are at the moment, which is very regrettable," he said.
"This is the third unauthorised mod [modification] that we've suffered that have delayed deliveries so it's very disappointing," he added.
Michael O'Leary also told the conference in Wicklow today that Ryanair's business is "booming and getting boomier" with no sign of European consumers tightening their belts when it comes to travel.
"I am surprised at the strength of spending in the European economy at the moment," Mr O'Leary said.
"There is full employment, people are getting paid every month and they are spending - they are certainly spending on travel," said O'Leary, whose airline is Europe's largest by passenger numbers.
Ryanair expects to start flying in Ukraine within two weeks when fighting eventually ends and plans to become the country's largest airline, Michael O'Leary also said today.
Mr O'Leary said he had hired around 60 Ukrainian pilots and around 80 cabin crew and his aim was to fly 30 routes from four Ukrainian airports back into the European Union within weeks of the conflict ending.
The airline would then plan to open up three or four large bases in the country within 6-12 months.
But he said he had no insight into when the conflict, triggered by Russia's invasion in February last year, might end.
"We would be back in there hopefully within two weeks after someone tells us it's safe to fly back into Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa. Kherson will be a lot longer because the airport has been destroyed," O'Leary told the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway conference today.
"We will be Ukraine's biggest airline," he added.
On Brexit, Michael O'Leary said the UK leaving the European Union will be net negative for the UK economy and predicted that the UK will look for a new trade deal in 10 to 15 years.
He also said that the labour market in the UK is "broken", adding that it is "incredibly hard to hire people" there.
All airlines are struggling with hiring people in the UK, he added.
