Flight Friday: How The Leap And GTF Issues Are Affecting Aircraft Utilization

This week’s Flight Friday looks at the effects caused by the engine issues with the CFM Leap and the Pratt & Whitney GTF (PW1000G).

The well-publicized issues that have been affecting these engines are being managed in different ways.

The CFM Leap has a “fuel nozzle” issue that seems to be well under control. The Leap number of ground days started to slowly increase from August 2022 but is hovering in the 17-18% bracket. To put it into context, the CFM56 in northern hemisphere summer 2019 had a 20% ground day rate, so anything under 20% could be deemed “business as usual” for aircraft operations.

The Pratt & Whitney GTF (specifically the PW1000G version that powers the Airbus A320neo family), has two dominant issues: the combustion/heat exchanger and the High-Pressure Turbine (HPT) blades. The HPT issue was announced in July 2023. Since then, we have seen the number of ground days grow from the mid-20s to almost one-third.

Operators were keen to get ahead of the HPT issue and started amending/decreasing their flight schedules accordingly. The GTF issue is expected to carry on through 2024. However, it does seem that Pratt now has a handle on the issue and hopefully the ground days remain reasonably constant. For context, ground days for the V2500 in northern hemisphere summer 2019 were around 12%, so the GTF, currently, is almost three times worse.

This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.

Daniel Williams

Based in the UK, Daniel is Director of Fleet Data Services for Aviation Week Network. Prior to joining Aviation Week in 2017, Daniel held a number of industry positions analyzing fleet data.

FlightFriday

Flight Friday is compiled using data from Aviation Week Intelligence Network’s (AWIN) Tracked Aircraft Utilization module, the most comprehensive and accurate solution for global tracking of aircraft utilization. 

Based on recorded flight movements from ADS-B data, combined with AWIN’s robust fleet intelligence, users gain insight into the aircraft’s actual versus reported movement, down to the tail number. This unique solution provides users a more up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of aircraft utilization.