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Airlink has acquired two Embraer E-190s just to use for spare parts.
African airline fleets have a high average age, which increases their demand for spare parts. However, there is a global bottleneck in the supply chain of spare parts—particularly for older aircraft. African airlines are therefore resorting to extraordinary measures to source parts with genuine provenance.
To mitigate the impact of parts shortages, African airlines are increasingly purchasing refurbished, certified parts—which are anywhere from 30% to 60% cheaper—as a faster, lower-cost alternative. There is also a move toward collaboration and pooling whereby airlines partner to share inventory and pool maintenance resources.
A particularly striking example of an airline resorting to extraordinary measures to secure parts supply is South African regional airline Airlink, which has acquired two early production Embraer E190s (SN19000055 and SN19000070) from TrueNoord. These are former Breeze E190s which arrived in Johannesburg in early January.
Airlink has parked the airframes at remote Polokwane Airport and says they will be used as a source of spare parts for the airline’s fleet of E190s, while their engines will provide the carrier with four spare powerplants.
Empowered by its recent sale of a strategic shareholding to Qatar Airways, Airlink is rapidly growing its fleet, particularly with the arrival of 10 new E195-E2s.
“One of the biggest challenges we’re facing—and Airlink is not alone—is the global aerospace supply chain crisis,” Airlink CEO de Villiers Engelbrecht says. “Manufacturers and suppliers have extended their lead times for aircraft and engines as well as for their various components. To mitigate the impact on aircraft availability and our flight schedule, Airlink has acquired three Embraer E190s to use primarily as a source of spare parts.”
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) notes that aircraft availability remains one of the most significant constraints on industry growth. “Airlines are feeling the impact of supply chain challenges across their business,” says IATA Director General Willie Walsh.
The order backlog for new aircraft is more than 17,000, which is equivalent to nearly 12 years of the current production capacity. Meeting the demand has reduced the supply of parts for aircraft already in service and has meant that aircraft are being operated for longer before being retired.
Walsh says: “The fragility of the aerospace supply chain network (often reliant on a limited number of suppliers for critical parts) can become an acute constraint amid economic uncertainty, changing tariff regimes, and tight labor markets. As a result, even small disruptions can be difficult to resolve and balloon to significant production delays.”
An IATA-backed study estimated that the cost to the airline industry of supply chain bottlenecks will be more than US$11 billion in 2025. Of particular concern is the shortage of engine components and support. The study notes that “airlines need to lease more engines, since engines spend longer on the ground during maintenance. Aircraft lease rates have also risen by 20–30% since 2019.”
Additionally, airlines are stocking more spare parts to mitigate unpredictable supply chain disruptions, increasing inventory costs.
For African operators, airframers such as Airbus and ATR are taking a collaborative approach, looking to build local capacity rather than keeping operators dependent on overseas facilities.
“The normalization of the structural mismatch between airline requirements and production capacity is unlikely before 2031-34 due to irreversible losses on deliveries over the past five years and a record-high order backlog,” the IATA study says.
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