Ryanair forced to cut August flights
RYANAIR has announced it will most likely trim some flights in August, because new planes they ordered from Boeing are late.
Despite the delays to its fleet, the budget airline has reassured passengers that their summer travel plans won't be impacted.
Eddie Wilson, a senior executive at Ryanair, explained that Boeing has not yet provided a detailed delivery schedule for the new planes, so they are expecting to cut some flights on busy routes this summer.
Even so, Wilson remains hopeful that less than ten planes would be affected by manufacturing issues, out of its fleet of over 550.
Speaking at a conference in Germany, he said: "We'll be able to absorb this in terms of frequency reduction.
"It won't be material, it won't affect people, because all the bookings aren't in for August."
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The announcement follows one from Ryanair Boss Michael O'Leary last week, where he said that said he would trim some high-frequency routes in July as a result of the delivery issues.
He described the delay as "very disappointing".
Despite the Boeing issues, Wilson has said that Ryanair would "absolutely" hit its annual target of 185 million passengers.
Meanwhile, the airline also addressed concerns that the travel chaos last summer, which saw hours-long queues at airports and mountains of suitcases piled up at baggage control across the UK and Europe, would be repeated.
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Ryanair was one of the UK airlines least affected by the delays and cancellations that caused widespread disruption to holidaymakers.
But while the airline doesn't expect a repeat of the travel chaos, Wilson said: "It's not going to be perfect."
O'Leary has already warned that strikes will cause problems throughout the summer.
He said: "The big issue is the impact of strikes. French air traffic control strikes started on January 19 this year. ATC strikes will be a major challenge in the summer and cause a lot of delays.
“Each strike day costs us 18,000-20,000 passengers because we have to cancel flights. There is a simple solution which is to protect overflights during ATC strikes, which is what they already do in Greece and Italy."
A spokesperson from Ryanair told Sun Online Travel: "Boeing’s announcement does not affect Ryanair’s current fleet of 540 737 aircraft.
"We are currently assessing with Boeing how this will impact the 24 737 aircraft which are scheduled for delivery in the remainder of April, May, and June.".
Meanwhile, TUI has added over one million extra seats to popular holiday destinations for next summer.
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The tour operator will also be launching new routes at a number of airports across the UK in 2024.
Other airlines and UK airports are also seeking to add to their flight schedules.
