Airbus Deliveries Strain Under Engine Shortages |

Engines have been noted to be the biggest issue for slow Airbus single-aisle deliveries. The recent comment about 60 gliders resonated. That is a lot of inventory, and to make an important point, Airbus may now have a bigger single-aisle inventory than Boeing. First Flight Tracking When we look at our delivery tracker, we can see the impact of the engine OEMs struggling to deliver—the table on the left lists first flights with the blue highlights on CFM LEAP-powered aircraft. The chart on the right shows the first flight data by engine type each month. Did Pratt & Whitney favor Airbus deliveries over its AOG customers through July? August saw a delivery slowdown, and September (half a month today) also appears slower. Perhaps Pratt & Whitney is now focusing on its AOG issues because it has mounting and serious costs. On the other hand, CFM saw an excellent July and out-delivered Pratt & Whitney since then. Bear in mind that the Airbus LEAP engines come from France. MAX engines come from Ohio. The LEAP has not experienced the same levels as the GTF. [caption id="attachment_108242" align="aligncenter" width="1543"] AirInsight[/caption] Deliveries Here's the same pictorial layout for deliveries. Notice how LEAP-powered aircraft with first flights sharply increased in September as engines were available, but deliveries have not yet matched this boost. We expect a bounce by the end of the month. To date, Pratt & Whitney has seen strong demand for the A321, but CFM is catching up. CFM has a greater production capacity; its history with the CFM56 has proven to be an excellent foundation upon which to industrialize LEAP production. Notice that for Airbus, the period between first flight and delivery is typically 30 days or less. So the delivery chart will run about a month behind the first flight chart. Pratt & Whitney not only chose a different approach with the GTF, but it also saw a level of demand the OEM hasn't seen since the Second World War. Whereas CFM's factories had to produce CFM56 engines at incredible rates, Pratt & Whitney's V2500 didn't sell as well. [caption id="attachment_108248" align="aligncenter" width="1541"] AirInsight[/caption] Summary Airbus has to deliver 820 aircraft this year. Last week, Guillaume Faury said this target depended on engines. We can see just how much this impacts that target. Last year, 77% of deliveries were single-aisle—the CFM vs. Pratt & Whitney situation affects three-quarters of Airbus deliveries. Monitoring the issue of engine deliveries is fundamental to Airbus meeting its targets.

US Flight Planner - US DoT On-Time Data	Airbus vs Boeing - Official OEM Data
US Airline Schedule Performance - US DoT Data	Daily OEM Production & Deliveries -

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