sailingfun

I just sold a bunch of Delta stock. Wondering if I might have jumped to early. Does anyone know if Delta's planned overhual facilities are up and running for the PW geared fans? This could be a significant source of income for Delta.

"Pratt & Whitney will lean on its growing but saturated engine overhaul network to mitigate the ramifications from years’ worth of production-quality mistakes requiring hundreds of PW1100G engines to be pulled from service, and could see 650 Airbus A320neos grounded early next year.

A “fleet management plan” unveiled by Pratt parent RTX, formerly Raytheon Technologies, on Sept. 11 laid out the painful reality for affected A320neo operators. Pratt, with the backing of regulatory mandates, will pull 600-700 engines in the next two years for accelerated shop visits in addition to 500 or so already scheduled for overhauls. Most of the unplanned removals will come by “early 2024,” said RTX President and Chief Operating Officer Chris Calio. This includes 137 that must be pulled by the end of September.

The engines will be torn down and high-pressure turbine (HPT) stage 1 and stage 2 disks, or hubs, will be inspected for possible cracks. Pratt is projecting an eye-watering 250-300 days to turn each engine around—a function of an overhaul network already overbooked with PW1000G-series engines that need restorative shop visits to offset long-running durability issues.

Add it up and A320neo operators could see a peak of 650 aircraft on the ground awaiting at least one airworthy engine at the peak of the shop visits, projected to be sometime in the first half of 2024. Pratt is expecting the grounded aircraft count to average 350 aircraft through 2026."

DWC CAP10 USAF

https://www.flyingmag.com/delta-tech...ance-facility/

Tfork

Might explain why delta has had less issues with parking A321s and A220s as other airlines around the world. Let's hope so.

DontRelaxScope

220's will get a little worse as we head into 2024 before hopefully reversing the trend. But yes, our tech ops is a massive advantage to keeping these engines going safely.

LeineLodge

Does this affect 321N engines or just 320N’s?

tennisguru

Not sure about the 321's but we've definitely got at least 10 220's in long term storage.

crazyjaydawg

IIRC, the affected engines were manufactured through 2020. I’m not sure how many 321Ns, if any, have engines from that timeframe. 220s are definitely affected though.

sailingfun

It's actually the date the components were manufactured not the engine. I don't know how long lead times are on engine parts. I don't think some appreciate how far ahead Delta is verses the competition when it comes to outside MRO services and the potential for future revenue.

PilotBases

Isn't the 220 issue different from the 321 GTF issue? 321 is powdered metal, which doesn't affect the smaller GTF as much. The 220GTF is something separate.

Tfork

From what I'm reading in AWST, it's a problem for all PW1000 series engines. However, the PW1100 is more dire simply because there are so many of them relative to the PW1500 on the A220. They say grounding should peak in the first half of 2024. I suspect, even though Delta has a new shop and a certified repair facility, there will still be a spare parts issue. As I understand it, there was contamination in the powder metal manufacturing process that has since been corrected. The engines with the defective disks (1st and 2nd stage HPT and HPC) need to be taken off the wing and the disks inspected after only a year. If they are replaced with new disks, they're good to go. If they are re-installed, they will have to be inspected next year.