With aircraft orders leveling off, in part because so many have been ordered in the past few years, the two major jetliner manufacturers are facing a different sort of problem: Engine shortages that could delay production of all those planes on order.
Both companies have order backlogs stretching into the 2020s, and have even talked of speeding up deliveries, but the two major engine manufacturers can’t keep up with the existing demand, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
French-American CFM, which makes the Leap series of engines used in both the Airbus A320neo and the Boeing 737 Max, and U.S.-based Pratt & Whitney, which also makes engines for the A320neo, are both recovering from problems in manufacturing. Although Airbus and Boeing have ramped up to about 60 planes a month each, and would like to go up to 75 or so, the engine issue will prevent that, at least for now.
CFM has told the planemakers not to expect any speedup for at least a year; the Leap engines have had manufacturing problems stemming not from their high-technology design but from machining and casting issues, and chips in turbine coatings. Pratt & Whitney had to suspend deliveries for almost three months at the beginning of the year.
The delays by both companies could be costly all down the line. Boeing and Airbus could be subject to penalties for not meeting delivery deadlines, and airlines could be forced to cancel flights, lease alternate planes, or even possibly change orders. CFM is already building more of its older CFM56 to accommodate airlines that have shifted orders from A320neo to A320.
So this week, when the big orders are announced at the Farnborough air show, a lot of industry executives will be biting their nails in the back rooms.
