Ryanair has taken further steps to ensure long-term maintenance support for its growing fleet, this time building on an existing relationship with a Middle Eastern MRO provider.

Amman-based Joramco will now support the European low-cost carrier’s Boeing 737s for the next 10 years across 10 heavy maintenance lines.

The previous agreement between the parties was a five-year deal running from 2023 for up to six lines of heavy maintenance.

Ryanair initially contracted for two lines in 2019, since when Joramco has performed 100 C checks on the Irish airline’s 737NG aircraft.

“Joramco have demonstrated excellent standards in their state-of-the-art facilities, and we are pleased to extend our partnership with them for 10 maintenance lines for the next 10 years as we grow our fleet to over 800 aircraft,” said Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operating officer.

In a recent investor presentation Ryanair said that it expected to receive 57 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft by April this year, but due to issues at Boeing it now expects to receive 50 by the end of June. At the end of 2023 it had 136 of the type within a total fleet of 574 aircraft.

To support this growth the airline has been bolstering its outsourced and in-house maintenance capacity, for example, through the new Joramco deal and by upgrading its own hangar at Dublin Airport.

Keeping its maintenance operations flowing smoothly could prove especially beneficial to Ryanair over the next year or so as some of its big competitors struggle to maintain their own capacity plans due to Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) inspections.

Ryanair rivals Wizz Air and Vueling both use the GTF on their Airbus A320neo-family aircraft, while Ryanair relies on the CFM Leap for its 737 MAX aircraft.