PARIS—Ryanair and CFM International have signed a memorandum of understanding that lays out a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar engine services agreement, which includes support for the airline’s plans to set up two of its own engine shops.
Under the agreement, CFM, a joint venture between Safran Aircraft Engines and GE Aerospace, will support Ryanair’s engine maintenance program for its existing and future CFM56-7B and Leap-1B engines. This will include the opening of the two MRO shops as the airline plans to take over the maintenance of the powerplants directly toward the end of the decade, the companies said Feb. 10.
Ryanair has committed to purchase all its engine spare parts directly from CFM, expected to amount to more than $1 billion per annum over the term of the agreement, as its fleet grows to 800 Boeing 737-family aircraft and more than 2,000 CFM engines in the long term.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with Safran over the next 15 years as we build our own two in-house engine maintenance shops so that we can continue to provide our customers with very low fares and low fare growth while paying for very expensive engines and engine parts,” quipped Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary at a signing ceremony at Safran’s headquarters in Paris.
“It’s been a 30-year partnership between us, we’ve had a long journey between us so far, and with this agreement, it’s a new step forward for the next 15 years,” Safran CEO Olivier Andriès said.
Ryanair’s current fleet of 620 aircraft counts around 1,400 engines. O’Leary told a press conference that as to where the airline will site the engine shops, it is still assessing five locations—in the Baltic states, Italy, Northern Ireland, Portugal and Spain—for the two new MRO facilities. It is hoping to announce the first one around the end of June and start construction work later this year with the aim of having it operating before the end of 2028, and then the second site coming online in 2029. Each will employ around 600 people and have the capacity to work on 150 engines per year, slightly more than Ryanair needs, but with spare capacity for growth, O’Leary said.
The airline will not seek third-party maintenance contracts, he added.
O’Leary said that for logistical reasons, the most likely locations were in continental Europe.
“At the moment, I think both of them are likely to be on the continent of Europe. Ireland is less likely just because of the logistics of transporting engines on and off an island on the periphery of Europe, given that most of our aircraft are based on the continent of Europe,” he explained.
The new engine shops should lead to “modest cost savings” when compared with current third-party rates, and greater savings should maintenance capacity shortages mean those rates rise. But more importantly, the sites will bring valuable supply chain security, O’Leary said, noting that the supply of spare parts, accounting for 85% of the cost of an engine overhaul, is a key part of the agreement.
“When we’re running a fleet of 800 aircraft and we have 2,000 engines, we need to be able to program the engine off, into the shop, back out and on the wing in 60-70 days,” O’Leary said. “If it rises to 100, or 130 or 150 days, you have the issues that Pratt & Whitney are struggling with at the moment, with lots of Airbus aircraft grounded across Europe because engines are delayed being repaired. It’s actually the control and making sure we’re able to tightly manage our own engine turnarounds that gives us a huge benefit.”
Giving an update on outstanding aircraft deliveries, O’Leary said the last four 737-8200s are due to arrive this month—aircraft whose planned delivery had previously been delayed but then brought forward again.
“Boeing left us 29 aircraft short for the summer of 2025, and we originally agreed with them we would take those aircraft in the spring of 2026. They have done much better, and the quality of what Boeing are producing has dramatically improved in the last 18 months,” he noted.
“Summer of 2026 will be the first year since 2018 that we’re not struggling with delivery delays from Boeing,” O’Leary continued. “So it’s a very exciting year for us, and I think it’s a testament to the success of the turnaround that Kelly Ortberg and Stephanie Pope are delivering with Boeing,” he added.
O’Leary joked there might be a one-week delay this week given the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory. “We don’t think there’re many aircraft being manufactured in Seattle today, tomorrow or the day after, but they only win the Super Bowl every 15 years, so we forgive them.”
