Ryanair expects Central and Eastern Europe to account for 20% of the 300 million passengers it plans to fly annually by 2034, up from about 13% currently, the airline's chief commercial officer said today.
Europe's largest airline by passenger number expects to fly 183.5 million passengers in its current financial year, 24 million of which will come from Central and Eastern Europe.
That number is expected to rise to 60 million by 2034, Jason McGuinness told reporters in a presentation.
Earlier this week, the airline's group chief executive said he expects to be at least seven Boeing deliveries short this summer.
"We still think it's somewhere between seven and 10 but there's a risk it could be worse than that. A lot depends on what comes out of the FAA review which is due to complete, I think, in two weeks' time," Michael O'Leary said.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched an audit of Boeing's 737 production line following a January 5 accident where a door plug blew off in mid-flight from a Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.
It has also prohibited Boeing from increasing its MAX production rate without FAA permission.
Ryanair, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers and one of Boeing's main customers, has ordered more than 350 MAX jets in recent years, but has none of the MAX 9 variant.
