The ongoing 737 MAX crisis has convinced Ryanair management to halt financial payments to Boeing and to begin talks on compensation for the delivery delays.
Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary has taken a pessimistic approach to the situation, stating he expects deliveries to be delayed until around March or April 2020.
Adding to this, O’Leary emphasised that he has no backup plan for a worst case scenario, which in his eyes involves a permanent grounding. Despite this, he attempted to disregard this notion by saying he doesn’t expect this to happen.
Described as the biggest operational challenge being faced by the low-cost airline, any more delays to aircraft deliveries could be seen as catastrophic. Summer flight schedules for the next year would have to be adjusted to meet the low count of new aircraft.
Further expansion of the airline has also been seriously hindered by the crisis, leading to a nervous environment where the financial work is concerned.
For employees, this impact is far more personal; more delays could see additional job cuts, including those involved in piloting and maintaining aircraft and looking after customers.
The potential job cut figure currently sits around 500 to 700 people, with O’Leary noting that the airline has 500 surplus pilots.
Ryanair has 135 737 MAX’s on order, with a list price value of $16 billion. The dense version of the 737 MAX 8, dubbed the 737 MAX 8 200, was scheduled to be delivered earlier this year, however certification delays and the grounding situation has got in the way.
What really caught the attention of the world’s media was the attempted, unofficial, renaming of the 737 MAX 8 200 to the 737-8200, which you can read about here:
Initial plans had the airline aiming for 58 737 MAX aircraft in service by the summer of 2020, however this is no longer a real option.
As a result of the major schedule reshuffle and the expected delays, Ryanair has warned it could lose some significant European bases and be forced to scale down others.
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) are working together to launch the 737 MAX into the skies again, however disagreements are getting in the way.
O’Leary believes that it is clear that Boeing is more focused on addressing concerns with the FAA. Regulators around the world are all able to determine whether the aircraft enters service or not and do not have to follow the footsteps of the FAA or EASA.
With this in mind, some regulators have requested they perform their own testing of the aircraft, to truly see for themselves how the aircraft has been fixed.
Both Indian authorities and EASA plan on conducting their own test flights, in both simulators and real aircraft, to assess the revised Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that is believed to have contributed to the loss of two 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
If regulators can not all agree at once, Boeing will implement a phased introduction campaign that will see the aircraft enter service in groups where applicable.
Killing 346 people, the 737 MAX has been subject to an insane amount of attention from: the media, airlines, regulators and even criminal investigations.
Even when Boeing can assure the world that the aircraft is safe to fly, the scars and the bruises will remain and the 346 people will still be deceased.
How are you feeling about the 737 MAX situation?
I keep wondering what other hidden ‘features’ is still there in MAX and other Boeing aircraft that will come into the light only after more crashes. Boeing really should have done more than engineering to regain the trust of me and other flying customers. Including firing and prosecuting those in command who knew about the fault but tried to keep it hidden.
@TJ: “That poor guy wasn’t even an CEO when the MAX was developed”…. Granted, he wasn’t around when the the Max was developed and certified, and granted that excellent and well trained pilots might have saved the planes, but Muilenburg was CEO when the Maxes were handed over to airlines, when the Lion Air Max crashed and still when the second one did. He was well aware of the technical issues that lead to both crashes, but chose to blame pilots instead. It was only under pressure that he admitted partial responsibility. So no excuse.
If you hand out planes that require well trained pilots acting meticulously according to the book in critical situations, you just can’t cut corners and limit required training to a 1h laptop instruction that doesn’t even mention MCAS….
Hi Folk ,
This aircraft will be one of the safest aircraft to fly after all the attention the Max is getting and the redesigning of the software , giving the pilots complete control over the aircraft if they need to get out of trouble , fine . It would not bother myself to fly in this 737 max aircraft ., all good .
Felix .
Sure your are working for @Boing or lack maturity and knowledge. First learn and read then think after that write. and for your a**h**e comment , Ethiopian Airline is the leading in the industry ,that’s why Boing apology the world. Learn to respect first.
Sadly, I don’t think the public will ever accept this aircraft no matter what Boeing or any government agency of any country will ever say to try to assure the public of it’s airworthiness.
I think any airline that retains this aircraft is not realizing the impact that the crashes (and the subsequent media attention and negative opinions by talking heads) made upon the public, and that many people will either choose a different route or another airline to avoid flying on it.
It has become a pariah.
Some at Boeing argued for an aerodynamic fix, but the modifications would have been slow and expensive, and Boeing was in a hurry. Its solution was to create synthetic control forces by cooking up a new automated system known as the MCAS
http://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/magazine/boeing-737-max-crashes.amp.html
I won’t be flying the 737 Max
There is nothing wrong with the 737-Max aircraft. They flew for over 100,000 hrs in the air (before being grounded ) in the U.S. and Europe by Qualified Pilots. Notice that both crashes were in third world countries where they put poorly trained crews in control. Yes Boeing should have done better at requiring training and the AOA sensors should have been redundant and made to be fail-safe.
Now Europe has no desire to certify the Boeing because they know it will compete with Airbus. SAD…
This article doesn’t seem to match the title “Ryanair Halts Boeing 737 MAX Order Payments”
Well, the jury is still out in my book…the 737 air frame has been a workhorse for decades…and I’m confident there’s going to be a fix…and Boeing will hopefully understand the errors of their ways. No excuse for their carelessness…and the pain they inflicted in both themselves and the flying public is well deserved. A lesson learned? In the meantime, my sympathies to those airlines caught up in the middle of this despicable production issue…not to mention those lost souls. I think Boeing understands…get it right, fly right, or get out of the aircraft business.
I would not hesitate to fly it once it get re-certified. there is a recent article on new york times that looks at the bigger picture in a more constructive way. Its simpler and easier to blame this on an evil and greedy CEO… with all those catch and inflammatory headlines media is racing to put out. That poor guy wasn’t even an CEO when the MAX was developed. The intense scrutiny this aircraft is receiving will be unprecedented by the regulators worldwide by the time it gets certified globals. Probably more than then any other commercial aircraft in history of aviation.
Hell no! I will not touch that airplane. We only live once and the Boeing CEO has only money in his eyes. Once Boeing scraps the plane and fires the CEO, then, I may reconsider flying on a new plane.
Simple and short.