Airbus A320neo Problems Continue

Airbus is warning that engine availability problems across its A320neo family will continue into 2026.

The manufacturer has further discussed at the beginning of this week its concerns about the long, drawn-out inability to obtain engines for its aircraft, specifically looking to Pratt & Whitney.

While some engines are arriving at the planemaker, they are certainly not at the required rate, which, in turn, impacts overall output rates.

For example, throughout 2025, while Airbus confirmed it had delivered over 790 jets, many A320neo family deliveries were delayed by months due to engine availability issues.

With the backlog continuing to grow throughout 2025, this has spelled bad news for airline customers awaiting their planes, often with heavy delays in their delivery, resulting in a knock-on effect across the business.

Unfortunately, Airbus also expects the trend to continue over the next 12 months. While it remains in discussions with Pratt & Whitney over engine availability, this ongoing problem has yet to be resolved.

Delivered Airbus Aircraft Have Problems Too

Engine availability has been a topic of discussion for several years now. While there’s undoubtedly some focus on the aircraft that remain undelivered, equal emphasis has been placed on jets already delivered to customers.

Pratt & Whitney has been the centre of attention surrounding its own crisis on the Geared Turbofan engines for some time. The woes affecting major international airlines are quite considerable, with mass groundings occurring for many years and, for most, no resolution yet.

Just in November 2025, Turkish Airlines confirmed that 40 of its 100 or so GTF-powered NEO aircraft from the A320neo family remained out of service, presenting a far from ideal scenario that was significantly impacting its operation. That figure is also not yet considered the peak; the expected peak is 50 jets on the ground.

Turkish Airlines would not be alone; this is a problem affecting airlines worldwide, from Spirit Airlines to Air New Zealand and Wizz Air, the latter not expecting a complete resolution to arrive until the end of the decade.

Airlines have struggled with routine maintenance windows being blocked out, leaving aircraft on the ground stripped of their engines while they’re in the shop, delays in acquiring spare engines, part shortages, and more, preventing planes from operating as intended and, at times, leaving jets on the ground for 300+ days.

As a result, the affected carriers have lost considerable network capacity. Each airline’s response has been different; some have sought to leverage the leasing market for temporary capacity solutions, whereas others have cut their losses entirely, choosing to retire GTF-affected aircraft, as Air Austral is doing.

Whether it ranges from the availability of engines delivered to Airbus to help aircraft production to engines already in service with airlines, Pratt & Whitney’s woes have been well-documented for years. While some cite improvement, others have yet to see it.

For Airbus to once again confirm that it’ll enter the new year dealing with the continued strain on availability for such a critical engine on such an integral family of commercial aircraft to its yearly performance highlights the continued roadblocks that prevent the business from fully thriving and moving past supply chain discomfort, which has occupied the vast majority of the 2020s.