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Greek carrier Aegean Airlines is anticipating that up to 14 of its Airbus A320neo family aircraft will be grounded by accelerated engine inspections in 2026, with wet leases proving ineffective to make up for lost capacity.
“The GTF issue is going to be with us for another two years,” Aegean Chairman Eftichios Vassilakis said on a recent results call. “We’re looking at nine or 10 [grounded] aircraft as we speak. This number will probably increase by two to three aircraft by Q4 2025, and will peak at around 13 or 14 aircraft somewhere in 2026.”
Star Alliance member Aegean took a “material” €20 million ($22 million) net hit from the groundings in 2024, which peaked at eight aircraft. Most of this additional cost stemmed from wet leases.
“We will not be repeating this,” Vassilakis said. “The 2024 wet leases were very expensive and, actually, we were not even able to plan them at the right time to offset the problem, because the predictability of the engine shop visits was not as precise as we would like it to be.”
Aegean is receiving an average of five A320neo family aircraft each year with upgraded engines, reducing the overall operational impact. By 2027, Aegean’s engine issues should be fully resolved.
Pratt & Whitney is compensating Aegean in two ways, on a per-grounded-day basis and through discounts on future engines. “These two, however, are not sufficient to cover our overall costs,” Vassilakis said.
However, Vassilakis is confident that Pratt & Whitney is addressing the issue and he hinted that Aegean will stick with Pratt & Whitney for its latest Airbus A320neo family order, noting that GTFs offered the greatest fuel savings potential.
“For the moment, we have not had discussions with another engine manufacturer, partially because—as of 2024—the aircraft that we have received no longer have the same problem,” he said.
Over the coming years, 220-seat A321neos will make up a greater proportion of the fleet, further-reducing Aegean’s unit costs compared with the smaller 180-seat A320neo and 174-seat A320ceo.
On March 14, Aegean Airlines placed a follow-on order for eight A321neos. This took the airline’s total commitment to 58 A320neo family aircraft, including 37 A321neos and A321neoLRs. To date, 34 of Aegean’s 58-aircraft order have arrived, leaving 24 to be delivered by 2032.
Vassilakis was quizzed on whether the eight additional A321neos would be LRs. “We have the flexibility to switch them,” he said. “For now, it’s just a regular version of the aircraft.”
According to its website, Aegean also operates 28 A320ceos and four A321ceos.
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