Summary
- Ryanair’s Group CEO wants to increase its Airbus A320 fleet to 50 aircraft.
- O’Leary prefers expanding the Airbus fleet over replacing it with Boeing 737s, citing retraining costs.
- The challenge is obtaining Airbus A320 slots as they’re already booked up, making new aircraft from lessors pricier.
Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary has told Simple Flying that he wants Europe’s largest low-cost carrier to operate more Airbus A320 family aircraft. O’Leary made the comments on the sidelines of today’s Airlines For Europe Summit, hosted in Brussels, Belgium.
Many think that the Ryanair Group only operates the Boeing 737 family of aircraft, and these aircraft do make up over 95% of the airline’s fleet. However, subsidiary Lauda does operate a smaller sub-fleet of 27 Airbus A320s. It is this smaller sub-fleet that O’Leary would like to expand rather than replace them with Boeing 737s.
Photo: Ilie Silviu Alexandru / Shutterstock.com
More Airbus A320s
Speaking to Simple Flying, O’Leary first explained that the existing Lauda Airbus A320 lease agreements are due to expire in the next four to five years,
“The plan for the Lauda fleet is we currently have 27 A320s. We would like to increase that number to 50. But at the moment Airbus is backed up with aircraft deliveries out to 2030. My leases only run up to 2028/29. So I would be hopeful of either extending those leases, or replacing them with other leased [A320]ceos until I can get a deal done with Airbus for new Airbus aircraft some time in the next 5-10 years.”
Photo: Tom Boon | Simple Flying
O’Leary doesn’t just want to retain the Airbus A320 family fleet but also wants to grow it, adding,
“My preferred alternative is to replace those aircraft with more Airbus aircraft. I would like to have a bigger number of Airbus aircraft in the fleet but at the moment I can’t get them. If I still can’t get them by 2028 when we have to return those [leased] aircraft I’ll replace them with 737s.”
Related
Ryanair Extends Airbus A320 Leases In Favour Of All Boeing Fleet
The Airbus A320 leases will be extended by four years until 2028.
Why not replace the A320s?
Operating a smaller fleet of a different aircraft type would seem to go against the Ryanair playbook. It adds complexity and cost to the operation. For example, not only must you build out an additional stock of spare parts, but then you also need more employees trained on that specific aircraft type.
Photo: Photofex_AUT | Shutterstock.com
Ryanair acquired its smaller sub-fleet of Airbus A320s when it invested in, then fully acquired, Lauda. Swapping them for the Boeing 737 family would be a cost and a hassle as the existing A320 crew would need to be retrained. It seems as though this is what O’Leary is hoping to avoid, with the airline veteran remarking,
“I don’t want to have to retrain all the Lauda pilots and the cabin crew from Airbus onto 737s. I would much prefer to get more A320s or A312s.”
Ryanair’s only problem is that Airbus A320 family slots are already accounted for, extending far into the future, and new aircraft from lessors are significantly more expensive.
Related
The Ryanair Group: From One Airline To Five
How did Ryanair go from one large airline to five smaller airlines?
What do you make of Michael O’Leary’s comments? Should the Ryanair Group have more Airbus A320 family aircraft? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!
