FILE PHOTO: Ryanair Boeing 737-800 aircraft taxi at Manchester Airport, Britain, January 8, 2018. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ryanair RYA.I expects to exercise "pretty much all" of the options it has to buy Boeing's 737 MAX 200 jets, chief executive Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday.

Ryanair has options to buy 100 of the planes, which it expects will lower its fuel consumption and offers a greater number of seats. The Ireland-based company was the launch customer for the 196-passenger jet in 2014.

“I expect we will exercise pretty much all of these options as they come due to exercise two years prior to delivery,” O’Leary told a news conference in Brussels.