This week’s Flight Friday revisits a similar analysis from earlier in 2024, the utilization of CFM Leap and Pratt & Whitney PW1000G (GTF)-powered aircraft.
At the beginning of 2023, both the Leap and the GTF had a similar percentage of monthly non-flying days. Note that non-flying days can be for a number of reasons and are not necessarily related to maintenance reasons. However, the tale of the two engines has bifurcated since then.
The CFM Leap has moved from 20% of non-flying days in early 2023 down to single digits in May 2024. The Leap had a short uptick in non-flying days during January 2024 due to the grounding of the Boeing 737-9s that had a door plug installed, after the door plug blew out during Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Jan. 5. There are still durability improvements that are coming to the Leap engines, alongside improved high-pressure turbines and nozzles that are going to be introduced over the coming months.
The Pratt GTF, on the other hand, has had a more turbulent time. Since the announcement of high-pressure turbine 1 and 2 blade issues in July 2023, the number of non-flying days has grown as operators remove GTFs from aircraft for inspection and technical update. With a limited number of spare engines available, this means that some aircraft are remaining on the ground for longer periods, as the turnaround time on the GTFs is still quite lengthy. However, there seems to be a small positive in the data. The percentage of non-flying days has consistently grown from the announcement through to March 2024. Starting in April 2024, that percentage has dropped—ever so slightly—a drop, nonetheless. With supply chain, workforce and engine shop availability issues that are prolonging the update of these engines, Pratt predicted peak non-flying days to be in the second quarter of 2024. The long tail of this is expected to continue.
The ultimate question is: Have we actually reached peak non-flying days? Over the coming months, we shall monitor to see if this number plateaus or—hopefully—comes down.
This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.
Related Content
