This week’s Flight Friday recreates a graph featured a little over six months ago, just after Pratt & Whitney’s announcement of issues with the GTF (PW1000G) engine.
Again, this data looks at the Airbus A320 family, with a breakdown of their average flight cycles per month showcased by their engine type.
The “legacy” powered “ceo” aircraft (using CFM56 and V2500 engines) in 2019 averaged 121 cycles (CFM56 at 124 cycles, V2500 at 118). After the pandemic outbreak, the legacy-powered aircraft were out of favor as operators wanted to minimize fuel burn on their flights to save cash—applicable to those operators that had the luxury of choosing.
However, with demand racing back—and issues with the “Next Generation” (NG) powered aircraft—the “ceo” aircraft have had a resurgence in utilization. For 2023, utilization returned to almost 100 cycles per month average. With the difficulty of aircraft manufacturers ramping up deliveries—due to a number of reasons—the legacy “ceo” aircraft are still being heavily relied on.
The A320neo family has a slightly differing tale. After the pandemic outbreak, operators preferred to utilize their NG powered aircraft, and that is reflected in the utilization data. In 2019, the average cycles were 125 per month (LEAP engines at 128 cycles, GTF engines at 123). As of the end of the first half of 2022, the average utilization for “neo” engines were both above 100 per month.
However, after Pratt & Whitney’s announcement in July 2022 of the High-Pressure Turbine (HPT) issues, we see a divergence in the fleets’ utilization. Average utilization of LEAP powered neo aircraft from August 2023 through February 2024 has grown to 122 cycles per month, taking it to almost 2019 levels.
Whereas for GTF powered “neo” aircraft that average has been 94, and below 75 for February 2024 (in part due to fewer days). This is because operators are having to remove engines for HPT 1 & 2 replacements, and possibly a little further work while the engine is off wing, and the high demand for those parts and the lack of supply and shop floor space is taking time. Pratt & Whitney expect the peak aircraft on ground to occur in the coming months, and then the issue should not get worse, but there will still be a tail of work to be carried out.
This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.
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