Volaris chief executive Enrique Beltranena believes the airline has reached an inflection point on the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engine-related aircraft groundings.
The Mexican budget carrier has been among the hardest hit by engine issues affecting its Airbus A320neo-family jets, which left the airline at one point with 41 grounded aircraft.
”We are now at an inflection point in aircraft-on-ground (AOG) and we expect this trend to improve progressively,” Beltranena says on 25 February during the carrier’s full-year 2025 earnings call. ”We expect more meaningful acceleration in grounded aircraft returning to service as we move into the summer and the second half.”
Volaris had an average 36 aircraft grounded in 2025, during which its fleet increased from 143 to 155 aircraft. It expects the gradual improvement means it will end 2026 with around 25 aircraft grounded. “This implies a full-year average of approximately 33 AOGs, representing three additional aircraft returning to service versus 2025,” says Volaris chief financial officer Jaime Pous.
He also points to the financial upside of being able to generate revenue from its existing asset base as grounded aircraft return to service. ”Our fleet in actual numbers of aircraft will somewhat decline in the next couple of years, but the available productive fleet will increase,” he says.
Volaris expects its fleet will decline to 149 aircraft by December 2026, while the average number of available aircraft increases from 112 to 121. The following year Volaris expects to have an average of 16 grounded aircraft out of a fleet reduced to 137 by December 2027. That will still represent an increase of four available aircraft over 2026.
The Mexican carrier, which posted a net loss of $104 million in 2025 off the back of sharply declined US cross-border demand in the first half, is expecting to grow capacity by 7% this year.
While fewer grounded aircraft provides a means to increase capacity, Beltranena stresses: ”Our capacity decisions have been and will remain firmly anchored in customer demand and sustained flexibility.
”Our flexible fleet and engine management framework allows us to dynamically adjust deployment as conditions evolve. We are fully in control of our growth trajectory, not only for 2026, but also for 2027 and 2028, when we expect to have the engine availability constraints normalised and fully behind us.”
