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By Klaus Lauer
BERLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair passengers have not shown any concern about flying on Boeing 737 aircraft since the grounding of some 737 MAX jets after a cabin panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight, Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said on Thursday.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded 171 MAX 9 planes on Saturday after a panel called a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight not long after taking off from a Portland, Oregon, airport on Friday.
Ryanair, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, is one of Boeing's largest customers and operates different variants of the 737 MAX from the type that has been grounded.
"We see no indication of any passenger concern ... not one passenger," O'Leary told Reuters in an interview, adding that the biggest threat to the MAX came when it was grounded for nearly two year in 2019 following two crashes.
O'Leary said that while the MAX 9 issue was concerning, he had confirmed following lengthy weekend phone calls with U.S., European and Irish regulators that there was no read across to the MAX 8 model Ryanair flies or MAX 10 it has on order.
O'Leary added, however, that while the U.S. planemaker had made "tremendous strides" in the last two years on production quality, "they're not there yet".
"We ourselves have found minor issues on aircraft deliveries that shouldn't be occurring in a world class manufacturer like Boeing and I think Boeing have more to do on the quality control side," he said.
O'Leary said he remained 100% committed to Boeing for future orders and had a lot of faith in Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and finance chief Brian West, but that Ryanair still had concerns about Boeing's day-to-day production management in Seattle and that of supplier Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita.
"They've changed the management in Wichita but I think more needs to be done with the day-to-day management in Seattle," he said.
(Reporting by Klaus Lauer; Writing by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)
