Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said he is optimistic on striking a major new aircraft order after the low-cost airline restarted talks with Boeing in the latest sign of the revival in aviation.
O’Leary said there was a “deal to be done” with negotiations between the Irish airline and Boeing in “the early stages” for a new order of Boeing 737 jets, 18 months after discussions collapsed over a disagreement on prices.
“We are back talking to them, which I think is an indication there is some movement on pricing . . . I think there is a deal to be done,” he told the Financial Times.
He said the new multibillion-dollar order could be for the 737 Max 10, the largest aeroplane in the family of single-aisle aircraft, or for the smaller Max 8200.
The potential boost for Boeing came as its chief executive Dave Calhoun told the FT he is optimistic the worst of the jet manufacturers’ delivery problems is “in the rear-view mirror”.
The company, which declined to comment on the Ryanair talks, has experienced delays and setbacks in the delivery of its aircraft in the past two years because of production problems.
Ryanair is one of Boeing’s biggest and most important airline customers, and O’Leary has regularly criticised the manufacturer over prices and its record in delivering aircraft.
O’Leary has accepted the new planes will be more expensive than the “ridiculously low price” he paid for his most recent order, signed in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic when the industry was virtually grounded.
Ryanair ordered 75 Max 8200 in December 2020, which analysts said would have come at a “screaming” discount, taking its total orders for the single-aisle plane to 210.
O’Leary has since regularly chided Boeing for delays in the deliveries of these aircraft, but said the company has recently made “real strides” in clearing its backlog.
“The supply chain is sorting itself out,” he said.
Boeing, which along with arch-rival Airbus, has struggled to deliver planes and meet the resurgent demand from airlines, has in the past four months notched up orders for almost 200 of its 787 widebody aircraft.
The US company last week announced orders for 78 Boeing 787s, split between state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines and new national airline Riyadh Air.
Speaking after the announcement in Saudi Arabia last week, Boeing’s Calhoun said he was confident the parts shortages that have hampered deliveries of some of the company’s best-selling jets were easing.
“We are confident that by the end of this year things will be appreciably better and by the end of next year they will be behind us,” Calhoun told the FT. “I’m pretty optimistic that the big issues are now in the rear-view mirror.”
Calhoun also stuck to the company’s full-year production and delivery guidance, which it announced in November.
Deliveries of the 787 Dreamliners are central to Boeing’s plan to increase revenues and cash flow.
Supply chain and labour shortages have dogged Boeing and the aerospace industry since airline travel returned after the Covid-19-induced lockdowns were lifted.
Before the pandemic, Boeing and Airbus had pressed suppliers to meet higher targets in the middle of the last decade as they ramped up production to meet booming demand for aeroplanes.
But Boeing slammed the brakes in 2019 when its single-aisle 737 Max was grounded worldwide following two fatal crashes, and the pandemic further damped demand.
The lower production rates made suppliers reluctant to invest in hiring employees or buying machinery, which has led to bottlenecks for particular parts now that airlines are again clamouring for planes.