Several U.S. airlines are looking at extra downtime for some of their planes and more disruption to air travel after Raytheon Technologies Corp. on Tuesday disclosed a problem with some of its jet engines that is affecting hundreds of planes.
And the headaches are not restricted to the increased downtime and the busy summer travel season: Recalling the engines for inspection may also snarl production of the engines, which could trickle down to jet maker Airbus SE
AIR,
EADSF,
at a time when order books for new jetliners already stretch into the next decade.
Raytheon
RTX,
said earlier Tuesday that it recently discovered a manufacturing problem with some of its Pratt & Whitney jet engines delivered between late 2015 and early 2021. About 1,200 engines will need to be disassembled and inspected, including 200 in the next two months.
The issue affects the Airbus A320neo family of narrow-body airliners, although not all A320neo jets use the same engine. There are no immediate unsafe conditions, Airbus said.
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U.S. airlines with the largest fleets in service using the affected engine include Delta Air Lines Inc.
DAL,
and the ultralow-cost Spirit Airlines Inc.
SAVE,
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson said in an interview.
Internationally, India’s low-cost IndiGo
539448,
is by far the most affected, he said. Mexico’s ultralow-cost Volaris and Germany’s Lufthansa
DLAKY,
are also among the airlines operating the largest fleets of potentially affected jets, he said.
“When it comes to deliveries, the problems with the powder blend on the turbine disk have since been corrected, but the capacity to both produce new engines and service the existing fleet are likely to stress Pratt & Whitney, especially given current supply-chain and labor constraints,” Ferguson said.
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The largest Airbus deliveries over the next year are expected to go to Spirit as well as Delta, United Airlines Holdings Inc.
UAL,
JetBlue Airways Corp.
JBLU,
and Frontier Group Holdings Inc.
ULCC,
Frontier declined to comment on the matter, and Spirit and others did not immediately return a request for comment. JetBlue said it was working with Pratt & Whitney to assess the impact to its fleet.
JetBlue and Spirit have agreed to merge, but the deal is the subject of an antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department.
Through a spokesperson, Airbus said that it is aware of the problems and it is working with Pratt & Whitney and its customers to “implement all required inspection plans.”
There is “no impact expected on ongoing deliveries,” the spokesperson said.
“Airbus will work to support customers as they work with Pratt & Whitney to resolve the situation and minimize the disruption on their own fleets.”
Airbus is likely to put “heavy pressure” on Pratt &Whitney, Ferguson said, as the European jet maker will want to meet its delivery guidance.
“I imagine the U.S. could see small delays in aircraft deliveries and slightly less airline capacity,” Ferguson said.
U.S. airlines such as Alaska Air Group Inc.
ALK,
Southwest Airlines Co
LUV,
United Airlines Holdings Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc.
AAL,
are not likely to be affected because they fly other Airbus or Boeing jets.
Those airlines could take advantage of any diminished capacity from the A320neo operators, Ferguson said.
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