Ryanair has taken delivery of its 209th Boeing 737 MAX 8-200, an aircraft that the low-cost carrier has dubbed the ‘Gamechanger,’ and will soon welcome the 210th 737 MAX 8-200, leaving it with no firm orders for the type.
Final 737 MAX 8-200 deliveries
On February 13, 2026, Ryanair took delivery of its 209th 737 MAX 8-200. The aircraft, registered with Buzz as SP-RZY, was ferried from King County International Airport (BFI) to Dublin Airport (DUB), landing at the Irish capital’s airport on February 14.
Before delivery, SP-RZY had two test flights: one on January 27 and another on February 9.
The 210th 737 MAX 8-200, also to be delivered to Buzz, registered as SP-RZX, made its first flight on February 10, according to Aviation Flights Group, which tracks aircraft during assembly. Boeing delivered two additional 737 MAX 8-200s, registered as EI-ILT and EI-ILV, on February 4 and February 11.
During Ryanair’s pre-recorded Q3 FY26 financial results question and answer session, published on January 26, Michael O’Leary, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ryanair, confirmed that Boeing will deliver the final four 737 MAX 8-200s in February, ahead of the summer 2026 peak travel season.
O’Leary praised Kelly Ortberg, the President and CEO of Boeing, Stephanie Pope, the President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), and the planemaker’s teams, which are “doing a great job at catching up [to] those delivery delays.”
Those earlier deliveries mean Ryanair will be able to achieve 4% year-on-year (YoY) growth in FY27, resulting in 260 million passengers during the upcoming fiscal year, O’Leary confirmed.
The Irish low-cost carrier, which has subsidiaries in Malta, Poland, and the United Kingdom, ordered a total of 210 737 MAX 8-200s in batches. First, in September 2014, Ryanair bought up to 200 737 MAX 8-200s, increasing the number to 210 in June 2017, which was split between 110 firm and 100 options.
Ryanair exercised 25 options on April 24, 2018, and a further 75 on December 3, 2020.
“Boeing has granted Ryanair certain price concessions as part of the 2014 Boeing Contract. These will take the form of credit memoranda to Ryanair for the amount of such concessions, which Ryanair may apply toward the purchase of goods and services from Boeing or toward certain payments, other than advance payments, in respect of the new aircraft.”
Rytis Beresnevicius
Awaiting 737 MAX 10 certification and delivery
Following the 737 MAX groundings after the two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, and after regulators had ungrounded the aircraft, Ryanair welcomed its first 737 MAX 8-200 on June 15, 2021.
Initially, the low-cost carrier expected to welcome its first 737 MAX 8-200s in Spring 2019.
Now, Ryanair, much like every operator of the 737 MAX 10, is awaiting the certification of the largest 737 MAX family aircraft. Neil Sorahan, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Ryanair, stated during the aforementioned Q3 FY26 pre-recorded session that Boeing expects to certify the 737 MAX 10 in Q3 2026, noting that the planemaker is “increasingly confident” that Ryanair will welcome its first 15 737 MAX 10s in spring 2027.
When the airline ordered 300 737 MAX 10s in May 2023, which will seat 31 more passengers in Ryanair’s configuration, it said it will welcome the aircraft in “phased deliveries between 2027 and 2033.”
The 737 MAX 10s will be used to grow Ryanair’s traffic from 168.6 million at the end of FY23 to 300 million per year by FY34. In addition, “the extra seats (coupled with greater fuel and carbon efficiency) will further widen Ryanair’s unit-cost advantage over all EU competitor airlines,” it explained in May 2023.
Rytis Beresnevicius
