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Unlike Gary Kelly at SWA, Ryanair CEO not a 737 Max fan...

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johnsonrod

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
Posts
4,218
Everyone knows Ryanair's CEO is a bombastic jerk who likes attention, but even this article is surprising. This guy ain't making any friends - certainly not in Seattle/Chicago... Yeah, this is probably a negotiating tactic, but even this is extreme - he is constantly berating Boeing. Part of me agrees that the 737 Max is not that innovative considering the big changes you see in other new designs - but the 737 Max was a direct response the Airbus NEO - also not that innovative... The Max was a compromise in order to not lose more orders to Airbus. That's too bad. On a positive note, I hear the Southwest pilots are happy with the 737 Max because it will retain the same overhead panel as the 737-200. :laugh::laugh::laugh::p

I do, however, agree with his point related to Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted/Luton expansion and the idiot environmentalists... England was once a super-power from a military standpoint, now history is repeating itself from an aviation perspective - the UK will lose it's standing (and big economic benefit) as an aviation super-hub (and BA and Virgin will suffer for it).

See the article below:


Ryanair offers scathing verdict on 737 Max

Outspoken Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has offered a scathing verdict on Boeing's 737 Max, describing the re-engined narrowbody as a "dog's dinner of a design" that had been drawn "on the back of a fag packet as a response to the [Airbus] Neo".

Although talks "are ongoing" with the airframer about future orders of either the Max or current generation 737-800s, he complained "Boeing can't tell you what the Max looks like or what the fuel saving is".

An additional stumbling block is the carrier's concept for a standing-only area on its flights, raising capacity to 230 passengers from 189 on an all-seated aircraft. This would require the removal of the rear lavatories and final six rows of seats in the 737. "We won't place any new order until they [Boeing] come up with a fix for this issue," said O'Leary.

In the meantime Ryanair has approached an undisclosed aviation regulator with a view to trialling standing-area flights, but has received "no positive response".

Ryanair is still condsidering ordering the Comac C919, added O'Leary, and has a design team working with the Chinese airframer toward a 200-seat variant of the baseline 174-seat aircraft in the 2018-19 timeframe. Airbus was not currently in the running, he said.

Meanwhile, he criticised the UK government's lack of a clear policy towards the aviation sector and said it was damaging the UK's competitiveness. Since Airline Passenger Duty was introduced in 2007, UK passenger numbers have fallen by 20%, said O'Leary.

He called for the government to "stop pandering to the idiot environmentalists and even less sensible Nimbys" and add extra runways at London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted as these airports are already served by existing public transport and road infrastructure. Seeking to construct a new airport in "the estuary of Boris [Johnson's] imagination" with no road or rail links for delivery in 30 years time was, he said "complete and utter bloody lunacy even by Boris's standards".
 
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London is already becoming less relevant. The constrained slots don't help. With new technology, airlines like Emirates and Qatar easily overfly Europe for passengers transiting to the ME, India, Southeast Asia, etc. London has reached it's capacity and there will be very little growth. Other airports in Europe like FRA are also seeing noise curfews and environmental pressures.

When flying to Africa, the ME or Southeast Asia, why even consider London as a connection anymore? I don't. That is so 1990s.........

Perhaps O'Leary will import cheap Chinese pilots to fly those Comac C919s too.
 
O'Leary will say any crazy thing he thinks will get people riled up. Most of which is complete B.S., he just want to get you thinking and talking about Ryan Air, and thinking they are the cheapest SOB's on the planet. Free advertising for them.
 

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