Aviation experts say Boeing looks set to face a slew of compensation claims due to problems with its planes and delays in the delivery of new planes this year.

The troubled plane maker has already had to pay Alaska Airlines £126m to cover losses caused by a door panel explosion on a Boeing 737 Max 9 in January.

Now, United Airlines says it suffered a pretax loss of $164 million in the first quarter of this year as it had to ground its Boeing 737 Max 9 fleet for three weeks for safety inspections following the Alaska Airlines incident.

Aviation experts believe this could lead to a series of financial claims against the aircraft manufacturer.

John Grant, chief analyst at global travel data company OAG, said I He believes Boeing will end up paying United and other businesses affected by the grounding for safety inspections and delays in delivering new orders.

He said, “Of course, they have to!”

“This will obviously damage their [Boeing’s] Financial conditions change over time, but how they interpret this remains to be seen. “

United CEO Scott Kirby said on an earnings call this week that safety is “at the core of everything we do,” but the grounding of Boeing planes hurt the airline’s first-quarter results. income.

“Had the Boeing Max 9 not been grounded, we would have been profitable this quarter,” he said.

He added that United “faces further significant aircraft delivery delays” which “result in a temporary increase in costs this year.” But he said: “We have found ways to offset most of the headwinds.”

He said the company had “adjusted our fleet plans to better reflect the reality of what manufacturers are able to deliver”.

Ryanair has also felt the consequences of Boeing’s problems this year.

The low-cost carrier’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, announced last month that the Irish company would receive just 40 of the 57 planes on order from Boeing that were due to fly Deliveries are due by the end of June this year, forcing the company to cut production costs. Flight frequency this summer.

Mr Grant said Ryanair was already feeling the impact, “They expected this to continue through the summer, but [Ryanair] Delayed deliveries have been mitigated by bringing forward the summer timetable.”

“Ryanair will certainly be making claims against Boeing for non-delivery and operational disruption and at some point we should see that in one of their quarterly results reports,” he said.

However, he did not expect Ryanair or other airlines to try to directly recoup any financial losses through fare increases.

Asked if he expected airfares to rise, he said: “It won’t be much, but the principles of supply and demand always apply and demand remains strong.

“As consumers we must recognize that the aviation industry is not immune to rising costs like other industries, wages are rising, oil prices are rising slightly as demand in the economy increases and these factors have to be borne by the airlines . Their pricing.”

Rhys Jones, aviation editor at travel news site headforpoints.com, said it was “almost certain” Ryanair would seek compensation from Boeing.

He said the airline had to cut flights due to fewer aircraft and the subsequent reduction in flight capacity “will impact Ryanair financially”.

“I think they have some kind of agreement with Boeing – what that is is unclear,” he said. “Ryanair may have similar terms to Alaska Airlines or ask for a better deal for future orders.

“I think Michael O’Leary will make sure he doesn’t fail.”

But he doesn’t think the compensation demands will be the end of Boeing, saying the company has diversified into the aircraft industry and has not only commercial but also military interests.

“I don’t think the U.S. government will let them go bankrupt,” he added.

He also doesn’t believe Ryanair will try to compensate for any financial impact by raising ticket prices, but said reduced flight capacity could have an impact on prices in the short term.

Airlines have net capacity, which affects flight prices – when there are fewer seats available and demand is greater, “airlines can set higher prices.”

“It’s similar to what happened after COVID-19, when demand picked up but airlines weren’t ready to meet that demand,” he said. “Fortunately, it’s not a global problem like it was back then.”

He noted that aircraft manufacturer Airbus is ramping up production, which could alleviate some flight capacity issues.

Ryanair said on Wednesday Boeing had taken steps to speed up deliveries of backlogged planes and could deliver two or three more planes by the end of June. I The airline was contacted for further comment.

Boeing has experienced a series of problems involving its aircraft this year.

A blowout incident at Alaska Airlines in January led the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the British Civil Aviation Authority to ground the 737 Max 9 while conducting safety inspections.

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are among the hardest-hit airlines because of the larger number of aircraft they use.

Affected by the incident, the FAA conducted a six-week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems and found “multiple incidents in which the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements,” leading the FAA to halt the Boeing 737 Production expansion for Max.

That means Boeing is unable to meet delivery schedules for new aircraft orders from airlines such as United Airlines and Ryanair.

Boeing has been contacted I for comment.