Boeing delivery delays costing Ryanair millions of ticket sales

LONDON

Ryanair will have to forgo millions of ticket sales this year because of delayed jet deliveries from Boeing, the low-cost airline's chief executive Michael O'Leary have said.

He also said the drop in ticket prices that dragged down Ryanair's first-half results should moderate later this year.

"Boeing delivery delays are challenging our schedule growth this year," O'Leary said at a press conference in London, saying Ryanair would transport 5 million fewer passengers this year than the 205 million it initially expected.

Ryanair has 350 Boeing 737 single-aisle planes under order, but the U.S. manufacturer has delayed deliveries because of a series of technical problems.

"We were supposed to get 7 in July. We got 5. We were supposed to get 10 in August. We're going to be lucky if we get 5," he said.

"It is very frustrating dealing with Boeing at the moment."

O'Leary said the five million fewer passengers could cut revenue by about 500 million euros ($550 million) this year.

"Boeing are certainly paying us some modest amounts of compensation, but I'd far rather have taken the aircrafts and grown even faster," he said.

The low-cost airline was also hit in the first half by prices declining about 15 percent on average from a year earlier, blaming high interest rates that cut into the disposable income of its clients.

"Good news for our customers, bad news for our shareholders," O'Leary said.

But he said the declines were slowing, and for the full year prices would probably be down about five percent.