Ryanair is one of the last big airlines that can genuinely claim a single-type fleet: 647 aircraft, of which 411 are 737 NextGens and 210 are MAX 8s. The only exception is 26 Airbus A320s flown under the Lauda Europe brand, based in Vienna — a niche tolerated rather than embraced. Everything else in the Dublin-based carrier's operation is built around one airframe family, and that's no accident.

The next chapter is the 737 MAX 10. Ryanair has ordered 300 of them, a deal that would grow the fleet by nearly 50% while older NGs are retired. First deliveries are tentatively set for 2027 after repeated delays. The MAX 10 trades some range (about 3,100 nautical miles versus the MAX 8's 3,550) for capacity, seating 188–204 passengers against the MAX 8's 162–178. That makes it a short-haul workhorse designed to go head-to-head with the Airbus A321s flown by easyJet and Wizz Air.

The logic is entirely economic. One fleet type means one pilot rating, one simulator setup — Ryanair runs a dozen or so CAE-built 737 simulators and nothing else — and one spare-parts supply chain. Maintenance crews become faster and more predictable on a familiar airframe, and dispatchers can swap aircraft at short notice because cabins, loading procedures and performance data barely differ across the fleet. Even crew scheduling benefits: every pilot on reserve is eligible for nearly any flight, which keeps the schedule recovering quickly when things go wrong.

Contrast that with full-service rivals. Carriers like Lufthansa fund multiple simulator configurations, several vendor networks and separate training pipelines for each type. Alaska Airlines, once "proudly all Boeing," gave up on commonality after merging with two Airbus operators. Even startup Breeze Airways couldn't hold its all-A220 plan when delivery delays forced it to draft in Embraer E190s as a stopgap.

For passengers, the upside is subtle but real: cheap fares built on razor-thin costs, plus a cabin experience so predictable that the mythical windowless seat 11A became an internet meme. Ryanair's bet is that you'd rather have a €19.99 ticket than extra legroom — and three decades of all-737 flying is how that price stays possible.