Cebu Pacific Aircraft Grounded

Cebu Pacific is continuing to battle aircraft groundings, now described as one of the most challenging situations experienced.

The Philippines’ base carrier says that it expects the groundings of its Airbus aircraft due to subsequent engine issues to continue until 2028.

The Chief Executive Officer spoke directly with Bloomberg in an interview, explaining that the jets in the A320neo family are affected by parking as they await crucial engine maintenance and replacements.

However, as the engine supply chain crisis persists, airlines are facing challenges in resolving these issues, and as a result, Cebu Pacific is adjusting its growth expectations moving forward.

The evolving situation has been so bad for the airline that its Chief Executive said that in all the time of working within the industry, something like what is currently ongoing has not been seen and likely won’t again.

With airlines predicting that it’ll be years before these challenges ease and the engine supply chain crisis can be put behind them, it also comes with the understanding that this has been a problem for years as well.

Despite all the obstacles surrounding the fleet, the airline was still able to increase seat capacity in the first half of 2025 by some 21%, a solid feat according to the airline’s executive, as it continues to battle long-term challenges related to aircraft grounding.

That growth also follows the challenges of the Pratt & Whitney PW1000 engine, which have been ongoing for longer and are affecting more aircraft than initially anticipated. With that in mind, targeted capacity growth is being cut.

A cut in overall forecasted capacity follows the airline’s decision to respond to the operational challenges caused by this and instead adopt a more modest approach to growth, reducing the capacity growth percentage point to around 13% to 15%.

The Cebu Pacific Fleet

Cebu Pacific’s live fleet data highlights just how challenging the planemaker’s situation is across its fleet, notably visible through the groundings of the A320neo family.

Cebu Pacific operates 25 A320 family jets, comprising the A320-200 and the newly delivered A320neo, part of Airbus’ next-generation aircraft family.

However, while 11 of the A320neos remain active and flying across the network, latest fleet numbers show that the same amount, 11 more units, are on the ground, bringing the total to 22 of this model being delivered, with just half routinely flying.

Across the A321neo fleet, the airline has received 19 aircraft, and 4 of these remain parked, leaving 15 units in service. These figures, however, continue to change month by month as the engine situation evolves.