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Pratt & Whitney GTF (geared turbofan) engine on display at Farnborough International Airshow 2024.
FORT WORTH—Even though turn-around times are improving along with maintenance shop capacity, a shortage of new spare parts will continue to be the main challenge for operators of latest generation engines, industry executives said here at Aviation Week’s Engine Leasing, Trading and Finance Americas conference.
“I see turnaround time improvements across the board,” Patrick Biebel, MD of MTU Maintenance Lease Services, said at the Jan. 27 event. “But it is not a straight line and there are differences between shops.” Biebel still sees labor shortages, constrained repair capacity, and not enough used materials, but the supply of new spare parts is a particular issue since it is “outside of our control.”
“Shop capacity has normalized a bit,” Engine Lease Finance Corporation (ELFC) EVP Joe Hussar concurred. “But finding the parts is the struggle.”
Both Pratt & Whitney and CFM International are processing durability upgrades for their respective PW1100G and Leap 1A and -1B engines powering the Airbus A320neo and the Boeing 737 MAX families. The backlog of upgrades to be implemented have forced airlines to park substantial parts of their fleets; PW1100G operators particularly have been suffering.
Biebel said the durability issues have had a “significant trickle-down effect” and have also been a catalyst for demand for previous generation engines. He continues to see a “complete imbalance of demand and supply,” with extremely high demand for leased engines with limited supply. Therefore, even for older engines such as the CFM-56 powering the A320 and 737 NG or the International Aero Engines V2500, there will be a very high number of shop visits sustained through 2029 or 2030, he predicted; demand that “was not planned.”
He also does not see sufficient spare parts supply for latest generation engines that would also allow the production ramp-up as planned by aircraft manufacturers.
Hussar said that of ELFC’s portfolio of around 600 engines, only nine are currently off lease, showing how strong demand is. Among its leases, 85% are extended. “All of our businesses got a boost because of the delays [in deliveries of upgraded new engines].”
“There are not going to be bad assets,” Hussar says. “The aircraft will fly for a very long time; we do not expect a broad retirement of the current fleet.”
According to David Moloney, technical operations director at SES, airlines are more and more assuming medium to worst case scenarios as for the delivery of new aircraft. Therefore demand for leased engines will remain high.
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