US carrier JetBlue Airways reports an improving engine-availability situation as it has fewer aircraft grounded for Pratt & Whitney (P&W) turbofan overhauls than previously expected.
Chief financial officer Ursula Hurley said during the company’s 29 April earnings call that JetBlue has “seen an improvement” from P&W as it works through a massive backlog of geared turbofan (GTF) engines that must be inspected for potential manufacturing defects in turbine blades.
GTF engines power both JetBlue’s Airbus A320neo-family jets and its A220-300s.
Hurley had previously disclosed that JetBlue was anticipating its number of grounded jets to average “mid-to-high-teens” throughout 2025.
“Today, we sit here and we actually only have 10 aircraft on the ground,” she says. “So, we have been pleased with the progress we’re seeing from Pratt & Whitney operationally.”
Hurley says there are “three drivers” of P&W’s improvements, starting with new GTF engines “staying on-wing longer, so not having to go in the shop as soon as we anticipated”.
“Number two, Pratt’s supply chain is improving,” she says. “And then number three, the actual time once the engine goes into the shop is slightly improving.”
JetBlue is among many global airlines squeezed by P&W’s enormously disruptive engine recall, which has involved pulling hundreds of GTF engines off-wing for months-long periods. The New York-based carrier disclosed in February that the engines were averaging one year off-wing before returning to service, and has previously disclosed that P&W engine issues were depressing its profit margins by about three percentage points.
The boost in aircraft availability comes as JetBlue is not clamouring for more jets, however, as the company has intentionally deferred Airbus deliveries into next decade as part of its plan to curb short-term growth, and has been weighing accelerated retirements of older jets to match sagging passenger capacity.
“Quite frankly… we’re getting aircraft back at a time when we don’t necessarily need capacity,” Hurley says. But eventually moving past the GTF engine issues and reaching full fleet strength will be a “tailwind” for JetBlue.
Hurley says JetBlue is continuing discussions with P&W regarding a potential compensation package for its ongoing aircraft groundings, but does not have updates to share.
“We want to ensure that we get adequate compensation based on the challenges that we’ve been facing over the last few years,” she says.
JetBlue is under pressure to turn around a series of lacklustre financial performances. It reports a loss of $208 million during the first quarter, compared with a $716 million loss during the same period of 2024.
