Another batch of Airbus A320neo-family jets are set to be disassembled for parts, as supply chain shortages make the practice of parting-out relatively new jets increasingly attractive.
The latest maintenance firm to join the trend is aftermarket provider AerFin, which has closed a deal to acquire four A320neo-family aircraft, the company’s senior vice-president of the Americas Jacqueline Fernandez said on 9 April.
“They will be hitting us towards the end of this year,” Fernandez says at the MRO Americas event in Atlanta.
She confirms the aircraft are powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1100G geared turbofans (GTFs) and that AerFin will scavenge the jets for spare parts, known in the industry as “used serviceable material”.
Fernandez declines to provide more detail about the aircraft.
But having GTFs is notable because P&W has recalled those engines due to a manufacturing error that might have left them with defective metallic components. As a result, hundreds of GTF-powered A320neos and A220s are grounded globally for engine maintenance that can take close to a year to complete.
AerFin is the third company in recent days to disclose plans to part-out Airbus jets with GTFs.
On 1 April, parts supplier Unical Group said it will acquire double-digit numbers of A320neos, which it will strip for parts, with the first aircraft scheduled to be delivered this month.
Unical said the programme is the first of its kind for that aircraft type. It declines to say from where the aircraft will come, but a photograph released by the company appears to show an Airbus jet in the colours of now-defunct Indian airline Go First, which had operated PW1100G-powered A320neos.
Then on 8 April, Florida aircraft lessor Azorra said it had acquired a former Egyptair A220-300 that it will tear down for parts. The lessor says it will sell the parts to Delta Air Lines and other carriers, and that it is leasing the A220’s PW1500G turbofans to Delta.
News that new-generation Airbus narrowbodies are already being cannibalised for parts caught some insiders by surprise. That is because Airbus only started delivering A320neos nine years ago.
But after further consideration, insiders see how the part-outs make sense, especially for jets that were grounded to due P&W’s engine recall.
The recall, combined with slow deliveries of new aircraft by Boeing and Airbus, have left airlines hungry for more aircraft. In response, carriers have been flying older aircraft longer, but parts for those jets too are expensive and in short supply.
For those reasons, parting out A320neos and A220s can help airlines keep as many aircraft airborne as possible, insiders say.
“There comes a time when even the newest airplanes are old enough,” says Roland van Dijk, co-chief executive of Fokker Services Group. “Used serviceable materials is something that helps keep aircraft… in the air.”
