United Airlines Has Boeing 777 Problems

United Airlines is currently experiencing engine issues with its Boeing 777 fleet, grounding planes.

Fleet data shows that United Airlines has 74 Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which represent one of its most important widebodies.

With 74 aircraft, the average age of the fleet is 26.5 years, putting it among the oldest in the widebody business.

While United Airlines has 74, just 64 are listed as active in the latest fleet data; this follows 10 units being parked, and the problem is worse than expected.

The United Airlines Recent 777 Woes

As Cranky Flyer highlighted, United Airlines is now seeing the full impact of engine issues on its Boeing 777 fleet, with capacity constraints and route adjustments across the business.

While the airline has made key changes across its network in what it calls decisions based on fluctuating demand, a typical move across airlines that evaluate the perfromance of routes, but the publication reports this as not being the only reason.

When speaking with sources, Cranky Flier reports that the airline is also being forced to cut capacity across its network due to ongoing engine shortages, making it hard to put aircraft in the air. Naturally, markets that may not be the most important are being axed first.

For United Airlines, the focus is on the PW4000 engines, which power the Boeing 777 fleet at the U.S. carrier, and more so the obstacles that have arisen in their availability, all driven by the sheer age of the aircraft and engines rather than necessarily supply chain discomfort, which is affecting the Pratt & Whitney GTF engines across several next-generation aircraft programs.

United Airlines knows its fleet is much older than it would like; the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for many legacy airlines that had long relied on older aircraft.

These older aircraft, while workhorses, have served the airline well through the years, but the pandemic highlighted the immediate need to begin transitoning to more efficient widebodies such as the 787 family.

The arrival of new 787 aircraft is directly linked to easing the woes of the Boeing 777-200 fleet, as new planes can step in to cover for older models on the ground and those that lack critical engines due to limited supply.

However, suppose there’s one thing United Airlines has learnt over recent years. In that case, it is that acquiring new aircraft is much harder than it should be, driven by supply chain constraints and long-standing quality issues that Boeing is still trying to address across its 787 fleet.

With this being said, the airline knows that across 2026 and the coming years, deliveries should stabilise once more, and the many delayed aircraft it expects will be delivered, which should offset the groundings and limited capacity felt on the 777-200.

Long-standing 777 Obstacles

The Pratt & Whitney engine issues affecting United Airlines’ Boeing 777-200 fleet, however, do trace back to just beyond recent groundings, and to a notable incident in February 2021 involving Flight UA328.

This incident involved a 777-200 powered by a PW4077 engine that suffered what was described as a failure shortly after departure from Denver; the damage visible in neighbouring suburbs was debris scattered by the incident.

As a result, the FAA and the NTSB were quick on the scene to conduct inspections and necessary investigations to get to the bottom of the incident. Immediately following the investigations, concerns arose about the metal’s fatigue.

Following the incident, United Airlines grounded all 52 of its PW4000-powered 777-200 family aircraft. This U.S. carrier is the largest operator of this aircraft type with this engine, which has played a key role in the struggle with availability.

During the period when the Boeing 777-200s were grounded, United Airlines had to combat capacity shortages and rely more heavily on other fleet types, including the 767 and even the long-standing workhorse.

After a period of a year, the 777 fleet returned to service with new standards being implemented, a setback in the fleet’s operations, and now engine availability continues to be a pressing matter for the business as it moves into the back half of the 2020s.