Ryanair Holdings has taken delivery of its first, and the world's first, B737-8-200. The first of 210 of the type the Irish budget carrier holding has on order from Boeing, EI-HEN (msn 62301) was ferried from Seattle Boeing Field to Dublin International on June 16.
Overall, Ryanair said that owing to delivery delays, it expects to take just twelve MAX 8-200s this summer season, split evenly between its Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) and Malta Air (MAY, Malta International) subsidiaries.
"Ryanair expects to take delivery of an additional 50 of these B737 'Gamechanger' aircraft before Summer 2022, which will enable the Ryanair Group to rebound strongly, offering new routes, lower fares, and rapid traffic recovery to many partner airports across Europe as the tourism industry rebuilds from the devastating impact of the Covid19 pandemic in 2020/2021,” Michael O’Leary said.
The MAX 8-200 will cram in 197 passengers in an all-economy class configuration with a luxurious 28 inch seating pitch.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Ryanair Group operates 419 B737-800s at present of which its Irish AOC operates 250 while Buzz (Poland) (RR, Warsaw Modlin) in Poland operates 46 and Malta Air operates 120. Lauda Europe (LW, Malta International), in Austria, operates twenty-nine A320-200s and is the only non-Boeing operator in the group.
