-
Ryanair
- IATA/ICAO Code:
- FR/RYR
- Airline Type:
- Low-Cost Carrier
- Hub(s):
- Dublin Airport, London Stansted Airport, Milan Bergamo Airport
- Year Founded:
- 1985
- Airline Group:
- Ryanair Group
- CEO:
- Eddie Wilson
- Country:
- Ireland
On May 6th, two Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 jets took off from Boeing Field (King County International Airport) destined for their new Ryanair home in Dublin, Ireland. Taking off about 30 minutes apart, the two aircraft flew non-stop, across the Atlantic - making for a nearly nine-hour flight! These deliveries mark the 30th and 31st Boeing 737 MAX aircraft flying for Ryanair's Irish airline. Ryanair Group's Malta Air subsidiary currently operates 24 MAX jets while the Polish Buzz subsidiary has 13.
A double delivery
As highlighted by BOE Family Flights, the pair of aircraft registered EI-HGL (MSN 65081/7992), and EI-HGM (MSN 65875/8000) were delivered to Ryanair on May 6th. Double deliveries aren't as common as sending new aircraft one at a time, but these do happen from time to time, with triple deliveries occasionally occurring.
HGM departed first, taking off from Boeing Field (BFI) at approximately 21:49 local time. About a half-hour later, HGL took off from the same airport at 22:18. With the late-night departure for a non-stop transatlantic journey, the jets would arrive in Dublin the next day, at 14:42 and 15:11 local time, respectively.
A direct, non-stop, nine-hour flight?
With a great circle distance of about 7,300km, the journey from Seattle to Dublin is outside the published range of 6,570km. Indeed, having flown for nearly nine hours, these delivery flights are most certainly outside the normal routes that we've seen the 737 MAX operate.
At the moment, the flight between Brasilia (Brazil) and Orlando has the record of being the longest commercial flight onboard a MAX aircraft with a distance of 6,079 kilometers. This flight lasts over seven and a half hours.
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Of course, delivery flights can almost always be longer than the range published by their manufacturers. In case you haven't already guessed, this is made possible by a lack of passengers in the cabin. In fact, depending on the operational requirements and arrangements for cabin fitting, some delivery flights are further extended if the aircraft lacks seats, with interior installation taking place closer to the new home base.
Delivered after a year spent in storage
The pair of jets are actually just over a year old, having been assembled around February or March 2021. Indeed, both 737s had their first flights in early April of last year.
Before delivery, EI-HGL had a total of six test flights amounting to 10 hours and 19 minutes of flight time. Meanwhile, EI-HGM accumulated eight hours and 38 minutes of flight test time over just four test flights. The aircraft were stored at Grant County International Airport (Moses Lake) for about a year, with final test flights taking place over the course of April 2022.
While some Ryanair 737 MAX aircraft have been built later and delivered earlier (such as EI-HGY, MSN 65887), others did indeed have their deliveries deferred. This is likely connected to the airline wanting to push back (or at least slow) the delivery of its 737-8-200s until after the Summer 2021 season. ch-aviation.com notes that the intention behind this was to avoid inducting them during the busiest time of the year.
Chief Executive Eddie Wilson said the following to Reuters at the time:
"We need a definitive date [from Boeing] as to when we're going to get the airplane and then we've got to decide... whether that suits us to take them or not because in the normal course of events we don't take aircraft in the summer months,"
Despite the summer 2021 setback, it looks like 737 MAX deliveries to Ryanair have been steady since June 2021. The airline has taken a handful every month since last year with March 2022 being a peak month, seeing the delivery of six aircraft.
Sources: BOE Family Flights, Planespotters.net, FlightRadar24.com, ch-aviation.com