Canadian leisure carrier Air Transat has sold and leased back a pair of Pratt & Whitney geared turbofans (GTFs), part of its strategy to manage ongoing groundings of A321LR aircraft powered by those engines.
Parent company Transat AT disclosed the $45 million deal with Rolls Royce & Partners Finance on 7 August, adding that the cash infusion will boost the airline’s liquidity, “while continuing to use the spare engines on an as-needed basis to power its A321LR fleet”.
”Proceeds from the sale will be used to partly repay the company’s debt and/or redeem outstanding preferred shares and to fund its operations,” Transat says.
The A321LR is a longer-range variant of Airbus’ flagship A321neo narrowbody jet, which Transat uses to reach major and secondary European cities from Montreal and Toronto.
Fleets data provided by aviation analytics firm Cirium show that Transat has six A321LR aircraft currently listed as in “storage”, meaning the twinjets have been out of service for more than 30 days.
That number has held steady since April, when Transat also had six A321LRs out of service.
Those jets could be grounded for maintenance unrelated to their P&W engines, but it is likely that most or all of them are out of service for GTF inspections and repairs.
Earlier this year, Transat AT secured a support package from P&W to cover some costs related to grounded A320neo-family jets “and those anticipated to be grounded” this year and in 2026.
The new agreement is similar to a previous P&W deal that compensated Transat for aircraft groundings in 2023-24, though neither company has released specific financial details on the latest pact.
Transat AT has struggled to find consistent profitability since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Recent setbacks have included A321LR delivery delays as well as A321LR engine durability, on top of stiff competition in the transatlantic leisure market.
P&W’s massively disruptive engine recall, initiated in July 2023, has caused hundreds of jets – including A320neo-family jets, A220s and Embraer E-Jet E2s – to be taken out of service for GTF removal ahead of regularly scheduled maintenance.
Some operators have forecast that they will be grappling with P&W engine issues through at least 2027.
