Just a question from my side:
Are these the retirements that FR planned for quite some time or are these additional phase-outs?
FR sold their oldest B737-800s (EI-CSA - CSN) at the beginning of this year to VRG/GOL - they are intended to leave for South America in November.
So there are two options:
1. Ryanair needs publicity as always and makes "an issue" with the BAA out of this Acft-deal signed some time ago
2. Ryanair is really under pressure for several interacting reasons, namely
-> Crews near to their annual limit of flight-hours
-> Low Booking-rates
-> Increase of Fee's at several Airports, STN in particular
I personally assume option number 1 - that's the way most people know FR for quite some time now!
BTW What was mentioned before:
FR signed its deals with Boeing @ 27,5 Mio Dollars per plane instead of 40 Mio's.
So managementwise they are pretty good
