Turkish Airlines To Ground Aircraft

Turkish Airlines will likely be forced to ground aircraft as the Pratt & Whitney engine problems impact carriers globally.

The airline has confirmed that over ten aircraft may be grounded before the closure of the 2023 calendar year as it continues to see Airbus A320 and A321 family aircraft impacted.

Turkish Airlines now joins a long list of carriers around the globe facing a similar fate as the engine manufacturer is under increasingly more pressure to sort out the global supply chain issues, amongst much more present with its engines.

The Pratt & Whitney crisis is continuing to hurt airlines. However, new reports that emerged only a matter of weeks ago indicated that close to 350 Airbus aircraft would be grounded annually across the following years.

Thanks to contaminated metal being found in engine parts, as highlighted by RTX, inspection rates of engines would need to be increased. This is paired with the number of existing issues impacting these engines that have forced airlines to lease in cover and reduce capacity across their network as they plan for life without critical aircraft for periods.

Frustratingly, the Turkish airline seeking a continued expansion of operations hasn’t ruled out potentially being forced to ground further aircraft with time, noting a potential revision of the number of affected jets.

Wall Street Journal reports that Turkish Airlines isn’t new to this problem, having already been impacted in August. Thus, frustrations will only grow as they try to limit the effects on their long-term operations with the impacted aircraft.