On June 16, Ryanair celebrated the delivery of its first Boeing 737-8200 aircraft in Seattle, Washington.
This is the first delivery of Ryanair’s 210 firm order of these aircraft, dubbed the revolutionary “Gamechanger” aircraft by Ryanair since it will carry 4% more passengers but reduce fuel consumption by 16% per seat, lower noise emissions by 40% and lower CO2 emissions by a similar amount.
“We are delighted to take delivery of our first new technology Gamechanger aircraft,” said Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary. “These new Boeing 737 aircraft will help Ryanair lower costs, cut fuel consumption and lower noise and CO2 emissions as we invest heavily in new technology to deepen our environmental commitment as Europe’s greenest, cleanest major airline. Each B737 aircraft offers 197 seats (compared to our 189-seat current 737 fleet). However, our customers will enjoy more leg room, new Boeing “Sky Interiors” and lower fares, while reducing their environmental footprint by switching to these new aircraft.”
O’Leary added that “due to regrettable delivery delays”, Ryanair expects to take delivery of just 12 of these aircraft during Summer 2021, with six delivering in Ryanair colours and six in Malta Air colours.
Ryanair expects to take delivery of an additional 50 aircraft before Summer 2022, which the airline stated 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 Covid-19 pandemic in 2020/2021”.
Meanwhile, following the UK government announcement to delay the removal of remaining Covid-19 restrictions for four weeks due to the risk posed by the Delta variant, which further delays the return of air travel between the UK and EU countries until July 19. Ryanair criticised UK prime minister’s Boris Johnson’s mismanagement of the pandemic, and the reopening of the UK economy following the UK’s successful vaccine rollout programme – especially when these vaccines are effective against the Delta variant, says the airline.
“The UK’s Covid travel policy is a shambles,” said O’Leary. “The Green List is non-existent because countries such as Malta and Portugal, with lower Covid case numbers than the UK and rapidly rising vaccination rates, remain on Amber. Meanwhile, UK citizens almost 80% of whom will be vaccinated by the end of June, continue to face Covid restrictions on travel to and from the European Union, despite the fact that the majority of the European Union citizens will also be vaccinated by the end of June.
“UK tourism and aviation needs a pragmatic travel policy, which permits vaccinated UK and EU citizens to travel between the UK and the EU without the need for quarantine or negative PCR tests. This will at least allow the UK tourism industry to plan for what is left of the summer season and get hundreds of thousands of people back to work. It is time for Boris Johnson to end his gross mismanagement of Covid and the recovery from Covid, and take advantage of the UK’s successful vaccine programme to allow the restoration of free movement of vaccinated UK citizens and their families to and from the EU, where Covid case rates are lower than the UK and vaccination rates are rising rapidly.”