16 Years On: A Look At Ryanair’s Boeing B737-200s

Ryanair’s formative years relied on the Boeing B737-200. Loud, exciting, relatively small, and pretty cheap to acquire, the type helped the carrier to grow and solidify its presence. The last left its fleet sixteen years ago to the month.

The first B737-200 to arrive was EI-CJC. Although it later had this colorful advertising livery, it was at first virtually all-white before having the carrier’s first livery applied. Photo: Dale Coleman via Wikimedia.

Ryanair’s B737-200s

Ryanair had 21 B737-200s, and they all had 130 seats. According to ch-aviation.com, the first delivery was EI-CJC in January 1994. This example was the renowned and bright yellow Hertz logo jet. The author vividly remembers seeing and flying it. The last B737-200 delivery was EI-CON in June 1998.

As the first B737-800 (with its much superior economics) arrived in September 2003, the older equipment didn’t last long. The first to exit the fleet occurred in October 2003 (EI-CKP/CKS), with the last in December 2005 (EI-CNW/CNZ/COB/COX). Funnily enough, one specific aircraft (EI-COX) was withdrawn on December 8th, the same day this article was written.

After leaving Ryanair’s employ, most went to other airlines, especially in Africa and South America. The most recently used seems to have been EI-COB. After stints with LATAM and Regional Paraguaya Líneas Aéreas, it ended up with Venezecula’s Convasia as YV475T, primarily due to sanctions in that country. It was used until 2018.

EI-CNT was used between 1996 and 2005. It was unusual in that it had two advertising liveries: first the Sun newspaper and News of the World on different sides, and then the more commonly known Vodaphone. Photo: Ken Fielding via Flickr.

The B737-200 was very much about Dublin

Looking back to 2004 and 2005, Ryanair’s B737-200s operated 108,466 flights, according to Cirium data. It had just over one-quarter of total movements (27%), and the carrier also used the B737-800, B737-300, and one B737-400 in this period. The author flew most of its B737-200s and most of the larger (ex-Buzz and ex-Continental) B737-300s.

As you’d expect, the B737-200 revolved around Dublin. It had two and a half as many flights as number-two Stansted and three times as many as third-placed Glasgow Prestwick. As shown in the map, some 48 airports saw it in 2004-2005, including a selection of former Buzz destinations in regional France.

Some of these airports are no longer served, e.g., Forli (FRL), Brescia (VBS), Reims (RHE), Blackpool (BLK), and Stockholm Skavsta (NYO). The latter was one of Ryanair’s earliest-served airports, and it ceased seeing the carrier only in 2021 as Arlanda became a base. Image: GCMap.

Up to nine daily from Stansted to Prestwick

In 2004/2005, the 319-mile (514km) link from Stansted to Prestwick, around 34 miles (54km) from Glasgow, had more B737-200 flights than any other route. It had up to nine daily departures by the B737-200. For example, on January 5th 2004, it left Stansted at 06:40, 08:40, 09:50, 11:35, 13:25, 16:55, 18:35, 20:05, and 21:45.

Loud and different, flying the B737-200 was always great fun. Photo: Peter Bakema via Wikimedia.

Ryanair’s top-10 B737-200 routes

As you can tell from the following list of top routes, the small B737 was primarily used between Dublin and the UK, with the market having about six in ten B737-200 flights. These routes were short and enabled good numbers of sectors per aircraft per day. Due to less congestion, they also had shorter block times, pushing up utilization. Most successful airlines have a strong foundation or core, and Ireland to the UK was it for Ryanair.

1. Stansted to Prestwick
2. Dublin to Luton
3. Dublin to Manchester
4. Dublin to Stansted
5. Dublin to Gatwick
6. Dublin to Edinburgh
7. Dublin to Birmingham
8. Dublin to Liverpool
9. Dublin to Leeds Bradford
10. Dublin to Charleroi

What is your best memory of Ryanair’s B737-200s? Share them in the comments.

from Simple Flying https://ift.tt/3EE80yI
via IFTTT