Hawaiian Airlines anticipates having all of its Airbus A321neos back in service “within the next couple of weeks” after recently having a handful of the jets parked due to ongoing Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engine issues.
During Hawaiian Holdings’ first-quarter earnings call on 23 April, chief executive Peter Ingram said the carrier expects “more engines to come back from the overhaul shop over the course of this year”.
“There still is a global shortage of engines,” Ingram says. “What you’re seeing reflected in our fleet is a number of our aircraft had gone into the overhaul shop over the course of the last couple of years.”
RTX and its subsidiary P&W is recalling more than 1,000 PW1100G engines, which power Hawaiian’s A321neos, to inspect for potentially defective high-pressure turbine and compressor discs related to a contaminated powdered metal manufacturing issue.
Ingram told FlightGlobal in late March that two of Hawaiian’s A321neos were “on the ground awaiting engines”, and the carrier has reported having as many as four of the type out of service at a given time for inspections and repairs.
Cirium fleets data show that Hawaiian has 16 A321neos in service and two in storage.
But the carrier appears to be over the worst of the issue.
“We bore the brunt of the lack of A321 spare engine availability earlier in 2023, even before that powdered metal problems forced a lot of inspections in the summer of last year,” Ingram says.
“Having taken some of that pain in 2023,” he continues, “we’re now seeing engines returning from the overhaul shop, and that has left us at Hawaiian in a relatively more enviable position than some other carriers that have dealt with the aftermath of engines that have had to go in for inspections a little bit later.”
Ingram cautions that it’s “still a fluid situation” and the carrier anticipates the potential grounding of A321neos for engine-related issues at any point.
“There is always the risk of an unexpected engine renewal, something that’s not in our plans that we have to account for as well,” he says. “We’ll continue to monitor that going forward.”
