Ryanair CEO says Boeing executive downplayed aircraft tariff threat

By Joanna Plucinska and Tim Hepher

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Ryanair's boss is confident that commercial jets will not be sucked into trade tensions between the United States and other trade powers, including Europe, after a meeting with a top Boeing executive.

Michael O'Leary, CEO of the European budget airline, said he had met Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stephanie Pope earlier this week and the signs were that U.S. President Donald Trump would be supportive of Boeing, barring any repeat of high-profile safety incidents.

"At the heart of the Trump agenda, we don't think there's much likelihood of tariffs on aircraft (but) couldn't rule it out," he told Reuters.

Speaking later to a conference hosted by the A4E European airline industry association, he said: "I met with Boeing and they don't believe there will be tariffs on aircraft or parts".

O’Leary did not say how Boeing had reached this conclusion nor whether it had been briefed by the Trump administration.

Boeing had no immediate comment.

O'Leary, interviewed on the sidelines of the conference, also addressed plans to recover output and secure long-delayed certification for the MAX 10, a key part of Boeing's efforts to contain runaway sales of an Airbus competitor.

The 737 MAX 10 is the largest member of Boeing's narrowbody jet family and Boeing is waiting for approval from regulators in the wake of a wider safety crisis. It has allocated this and other delayed development programmes to one of its top troubleshooters, Mike Sinnett.

O'Leary said Boeing had agreed to supply alternative jets in time for summer 2027 if it fails to certify the MAX 10 this year.

"I think we'll get our first 15 MAX 10s in 2027 but Boeing have now agreed, if they don't get certification this year and they can't deliver us MAX 10s, they will deliver us additional MAX 8s in time for summer 2027," O'Leary said, referring to the MAX 8200 high-density model currently used by Ryanair.

"I think we are getting more confident that there's a good team of people now between (new Boeing CEO) Kelly Ortberg, (Commercial CEO) Stephanie Pope and the rest now running Boeing, and as long as nothing unforeseen happens, I think we will get there through 2025, 2026, 2027," O'Leary said.

PRODUCTION PROGRESS

For this year, Boeing has agreed to bring forward some aircraft deliveries but this still leaves the Irish carrier short of 30 aircraft this summer, he told Reuters.

Ryanair does not typically agree to take planes after the height of summer, preferring to delay until the following peak period, but it has agreed to take 25 of those aircraft between August and October this year, he added.

Boeing's production of the 737 MAX has been capped at 38 a month by federal regulators following the mid-air blowout of a door plug last year. It has said it hopes to reach that level and then push on to 42 some time this year, subject to approval.

O'Leary, who is briefed regularly on the progress of jets on order by one of Boeing's top customers, said Boeing had produced 32 narrowbody planes in March and would reach a rate of 38 a month by end-April.

It aims to reach 42 a month by September or October and 48 within 12-18 months, he said. Boeing has said it aims to reach the 42 a month milestone some time this year.

There has been a marked increase in quality of deliveries in the past year following earlier problems that included rags left in a fuel tank, O'Leary said.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher. Editing by Mark Potter and Jane Merriman)