London, 28 September 2023 (dpa) — Budget airline Ryanair is reducing its autumn and winter schedule due to problems in the delivery of Boeing aircraft.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said, "At this early date, we do not expect these delivery delays will materially affect our full year traffic target of 183.5m, but if the delays worsen or extend further into the Jan to Mar 2024 period, we may have to revisit this figure and possibly adjust it slightly downward."

Ryanair now expects to receive only 14 aircraft between October and December, while earlier it was expecting deliveries of 27 aircraft between September and December.

According to the company, the expected reduction in deliveries was due to production delays at the Spirit Fuselage facility in Wichita, combined with Boeings repair and delivery delays in Seattle.

Ryanair will make a number of adjustments to its winter 2023 schedule this week. The company is reducing the number of Charleroi based aircraft by three, Dublin based aircraft by two, and will reduce five aircraft across four Italian bases, including Bergamo, Naples and Pisa.

There will also be aircraft reductions in East Midlands, Porto, and Cologne. These flight cancellations will take effect from the end of October.

Passengers will be offered seats on alternative flights or full refunds as they so wish. Ryanair said it is working with Boeing to try to get delivery of all 57 contracted B737 aircraft before the end of May 2024.

The company hopes to enter the summer 2024 peak travel season with all 57 new Boeing aircraft deliveries as expected.

The company noted that it has no spare aircraft this winter as scheduled maintenance is necessary across full fleet of over 550 aircraft to prepare for summer 2024 schedule.