Airlines hit by jet shortages in new challenge for aviation

[yorkie]

Airlines hit by jet shortages in new challenge for aviation

Supply chain crunch disrupts deliveries as carriers are forced to reduce flights

www.ft.com

A shortage of new jets is the latest challenge for the global airline industry, which has been grappling with resurgent passenger demand following the pandemic while at the same time facing an exodus of staff and spare parts.

Deliveries of new jets have been hampered by severe constraints in the supply chain, particularly for engines, pushing back delivery times for many airlines...

Does anyone have any ideas when these issues will be alleviated?

To what extent will the main UK carriers be affected by this?

 

[Snow1964]

There appears to be various problems :

Various airlines postponed their new aircraft during height of covid, some are built and stored at manufacturer, or at dry locations like Victorville. Some of these were not finished, missing anything from engines to cabin fit out.

Also during covid, airlines offloaded many older planes which are less efficient, and these went for scrap. A lot of BA 747s went to Kemble, Gloucestershire for scrapping. Many of these were due to be withdrawn 2020-23 anyway, but of course withdrawing before the replacements have arrived has left a gap in the fleet.

Boeing had regulatory problems with FAA and other major regulators (as a result of not being 100% clean on the 737-max self certification). Following the 2 crashes the regulators tightened up the checking, and require modifications which are taking long while to do before the planes can enter service. It could be well into 2024 before backlog of modifications done. Some modifications are also being done on wide bodies 787. A spin off of the extra regulatory scrutiny is the new 777X is probably not going to be certified until 3-5 years later than Boeing expected.

Airbus had some problems after cutting capacity during covid. In addition there were airlines not accepting planes eg Qatar. Space requirements meant some of these had to be finished and flown to places like Chateauroux in France, and because many airlines configurations are different isn’t easy to just divert them to those waiting.

Finally there is a staffing issue, many staff left airline industry (and airports) during covid, and currently not enough staff to keep all the planes busy. Heathrow still has a daily cap on number of departing passengers due to lack of staff.

 

[gabrielhj07]

easyJet are suffering from this, they are using SmartLynx to operate some flights using their Maltese/Latvian aircraft.

 

[TheEdge]

The airlines only thought about the bottom line when reacting to Covid and that kneejerk reaction is biting them hard now.

 

[plugwash]

Is it?

Is a reduction in capacity actually bad for the airlines? or does it mean they can change premium prices?

 

[najaB]

The airlines only thought about the bottom line when reacting to Covid and that kneejerk reaction is biting them hard now.

When demand for your product goes down by 90% in an few days/weeks, you better pay attention to the bottom line! The larger airline groups were hemorrhaging literally millions of Euros/Pounds/Dollars a day.

 

[Cloud Strife]

The larger airline groups were hemorrhaging literally millions of Euros/Pounds/Dollars a day.

Ryanair went from just over 1bn Euro in profit in 2019 to losing 800m Euro in 2020, despite having flexible labour agreements and so on.

 

[Snow1964]

Reuters are reporting that Bloomberg are reporting IAG (International Airlines Group), the parent of British Airways are in talks with Airbus and Boeing for more planes.

Seems they are considering the early 777s, at least 20 aircraft, although possibly more as nearer 40 older 777s

Oct 6 (Reuters) - British Airways-owner IAG (ICAG.L) is in talks with Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) for a potential order for widebody aircraft, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Orders for long-distance widebody jets have rebounded as carriers try to inject newer planes into their fleet to meet higher international travel demand.

IAG is seeking to replace its fleet of older Boeing 777s at British Airways and could order 20 or more aircraft, the report said.

IAG in talks with Airbus, Boeing on potential widebody order, Bloomberg reports

British Airways-owner IAG is in talks with Boeing and Airbus for a potential order for widebody aircraft, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

www.reuters.com

 

[najaB]

Reuters are reporting that Bloomberg are reporting IAG (International Airlines Group), the parent of British Airways are in talks with Airbus and Boeing for more planes.

Seems they are considering the early 777s, at least 20 aircraft, although possibly more as nearer 40 older 777s

Any indication if it's -200s or the -300s that they want to replace? A mix of both?

 

[Snow1964]

Any indication if it's -200s or the -300s that they want to replace? A mix of both?

Will be 777-200, G-RAES, G-VIIx, G-YMMA to G-YMMP
They all date from 1997-2001

BAs 777-300 are much newer

 

[edwin_m]

I believe there are also problems with recent engine designs showing faults and having to be recalled for modifications, so either planes in service need to be grounded or new engines are diverted from planes on the production line.

 

[Ted633]

Will be 777-200, G-RAES, G-VIIx, G-YMMA to G-YMMP
They all date from 1997-2001

BAs 777-300 are much newer

Sorry, that's incorrect.
BA's oldest 777's are the G-VII* series (+ RAES). The G-YMM* series are the newer batch (delivered from 2000, previous ones from 97)
They've all just gone through a full cabin refresh as well, so I'd expect the orders are gor replacement in the medium term.

I believe there are also problems with recent engine designs showing faults and having to be recalled for modifications, so either planes in service need to be grounded or new engines are diverted from planes on the production line.

There were issues with the 787 Trent engines, however these have now mostly been resolved.

 

[najaB]

I assumed that it would be the -200s but was wondering, given the potential for up to 40 frames, if the oldest -300s might be up for replacement as well.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

IAG has just turned six options for 787-10s for British Airways into firm orders and at the same time added a further six options for 787-10s*, so I suspect the new bulk order is likely to be further 787-10s.


*Source: Air Britain News September 2023, page SEP.1604

 

[Mojo]

IAG has just turned six options for 787-10s for British Airways into firm orders and at the same time added a further six options for 787-10s*, so I suspect the new bulk order is likely to be further 787-10s.

Shame isn't A350s, a much nicer aircraft; although I accept that BA has realised their spec for the original Dreamliners was frankly awful and has gone some way to rectify this in later orders.

There were issues with the 787 Trent engines, however these have now mostly been resolved.

Yes, it was getting a bit silly with BA 7 / 8 Tokyo being cancelled every other day due to fleet shortage.

 

[edwin_m]

Sorry, that's incorrect.
BA's oldest 777's are the G-VII* series (+ RAES). The G-YMM* series are the newer batch (delivered from 2000, previous ones from 97)
They've all just gone through a full cabin refresh as well, so I'd expect the orders are gor replacement in the medium term.


There were issues with the 787 Trent engines, however these have now mostly been resolved.

Also seeing reports of problems with Pratt & Whitney engines on A32x.

P&W to recall 1,200 PW1000Gs for inspections in latest blow to airline operations

Pratt & Whitney (P&W) has determined that many more PW1100Gs might contain defective high-pressure turbine disks and therefore require accelerated removal and inspection.

www.flightglobal.com

Pratt & Whitney (P&W) has determined that many more PW1100Gs might contain defective high-pressure turbine disks and therefore require accelerated removal and inspection.

The engine maker’s parent RTX disclosed on 25 July that 1,200 of the engines will need to be returned to P&W over the next year for inspections that require the engines be taken off wings and partly disassembled.

The news marks another significant issue for an engine programme that suffered several recent durability problems. P&W has also struggled to keep up with maintenance and production demand.

 

[najaB]

Not sure what the forum etiquette is on posting info from other forums, but over on Airliners.net a pretty well reasoned suggestion is that the order could look something like:

25 to 30 A350-900 in three class configuration, split between the LHR and LGW fleets,
9 to 15 B787-9 in four class configuration for the LHR fleet,
6 787-X in four Class for LHR (these are already on order)

 

[gabrielhj07]

Not sure what the forum etiquette is on posting info from other forums, but over on Airliners.net a pretty well reasoned suggestion is that the order could look something like:

Wouldn't mind some more A350s, lovely aeroplanes.