Airbus is expecting an early dip in single-aisle deliveries as a result of supply-chain issues with engines for its A320neo family.
Speaking during a full-year briefing on 20 February, chief executive Guillaume Faury said that “tensions” regarding narrowbody engines “persist”.
He says Pratt & Whitney deliveries – in the aftermath of the geared-turbofan metal powder issue – are “low” but nevertheless in line with revised plans.
But there is a “very different” situation with CFM International, which produces Leap-1A powerplants, states Faury.
He says the engine manufacturer is recovering from several production issues affecting parts supply, including hurricane damage to a Florida plant.
“This is already affecting us as we begin to have so-called ‘gliders’,” says Faury, referring to aircraft which have been assembled but are awaiting the arrival of engines.
He says the problems emerged towards the end of 2024 and the allocation of available engines between airframers and customers was “the source of a lot of arm-twisting between stakeholders”.
While CFM has supported Airbus in the last few months to ensure deliveries to customers, Faury says: “We knew there’d be some missing hardware at the beginning of this year, and this is impacting us and our customers.”
He says the situation will result in “low delivery numbers” for the first quarter, and the figure will be “lower than last year”.
Over the first quarter of 2024 the airframer handed over 116 A320neo-family jets.
“We expect the situation to continue until summer before it normalises in the second half of the year,” says Faury.
