SriLankan Airlines has linked its parking of five Airbus A320neo-family jets to a "global shortage" of engines, suggesting that bottlenecks in the supply chain continue to crimp airline operations in Asia as the peak summer season approaches.
The airline says the five aircraft "are currently awaiting engines after shop visits, as the global industry faces a shortage of engines and long lead times for engine repairs for this type of aircraft". Fleets data shows that SriLankan has six A320neo-family jets in its all-Airbus fleet of 24 jets. Flight-tracking data indicates that five of the six Neos have not been operated since late March or earlier. The five jets comprise two A320neos, registered 4R-ANA and 4R-ANB, and three A321neos: 4R-ANF, 4R-ANE and 4R-AND. The first four are leased from Air Lease Corporation and the fifth from AerCap. Additionally, an A321ceo, registered 4R-ABQ, has also not been operating since mid-December 2022, the data shows. SriLankan's A320neo-family jets are all fitted with CFM International Leap-1A engines, while its A320ceo-family jets are variously powered by CFM56s and International Aero Engines V2500s. The airline adds that it is "currently working with its suppliers to work out a solution, and the global supply of engines is also expected to improve in the months ahead". It dismisses local media reports that the aircraft were grounded owing to a lack of finances.

The shortage of MRO capacity to restore jet engines is weighing on airlines to the point where some may not be able to mount additional capacity during peak periods. Speaking during a panel session on engine leasing at the recent Airline Economics Growth Frontiers event in Tokyo, Clover Aviation Capital executive director and chief technical officer Gareth Delany noted that the lack of MRO capacity, especially for engine restorations, was having a real impact on carriers in Japan. "I have been visiting airlines here in Japan and it’s the top topic of conversation, it's causing huge problems," he says. "One airline told me of a huge percentage of their fleet that will be grounded for Golden Week as a result of engines off wing. That's in the new technology sector." Other lessors mentioned Indian carrier Go First, which has been struggling to deploy its full fleet of Airbus A320neos while it waits for repairs to its Pratt & Whitney PW1200G engines. Fleets data shows that 27 of its 50 A320neos are showing as stored. Delany says that it is up to the engine manufacturers to communicate how they plan to solve the reliability issues that new engines have faced, and how they will increase MRO capacity as they largely control the aftermarket for those engines. Ascend Consultancy global head of consultancy, Rob Morris, acknowledged that while the issues are particularly acute for some carreirs, past experience shows that the engines will become more reliable in time. "There is always a development cycle where we have new types, there's always been issues then we have first upgrade, second upgrade and then we have maturity," he says. As well as the new generation issues, the lack of MRO capacity is also impacting older engines, such as the International Aero Engines V2500 and CFM International CFM56, which Delaney says are struggling to get a maintenance slot if they are required to come off-wing, potentially grounding aircraft for an extended period of time. "Seven months is an average for time off-wing, but that doesn't really reflect the bigger problems [for airlines] of having an engine off-wing for a year," says Delany. Rolls-Royce & Partners Finance managing director Bobby Janagan, agreed, saying: " The industry need to bring back reliability and the shop slots, so that means the MRO capacity needs to increase a lot."

Airbus and Pratt & Whitney Canada have teamed up with Montreal-based sustainable aviation fuel company SAF+ Consortium to study the feasibility of a SAF production plant in Quebec. Supported by Quebec's government, the partners will concentrate on the possibility of developing a commercial plant that could produce up to 100 million litres of power-to-liquid SAF from captured CO2 with green hydrogen, the European airframer says. Its Canadian subsidiary will act as partner in the project, dubbed CADAQ-100. Airbus says it will conduct test flights on an A220 with fuel blends up to full SAF, as part of the effort. Pratt & Whitney's PW1500G is the sole engine available on the A220. The aircraft is produced at Airbus Canada's Mirabel facility, outside Montreal, and at the airframer's US assembly line in Mobile, Alabama. The project participants and government of Quebec have jointly committed C$17 million ($13 million) to the research."Collaboration between public and private sectors is critical to achieving our goals, so we welcome this opportunity and the continued support of the government of Quebec to help expand SAF research and production capabilities in the region," P&WC vice-president of engineering Edward Hoskin states. SAF+ Consortium chief executive Jean Paquin asserts that the collaboration "will help accelerate our vision to transform Montreal into a North American sustainable aviation hub, something which we have always known could only be achieved as a cross-industry effort". He adds: "With multiple purchase commitments from Canadian airlines in place, alongside our ambition to achieve net-zero emissions, investment in SAF production infrastructure is urgently needed." Airbus Canada chief executive Benoit Schultz describes the plan to build a Canadian sustainable fuel ecosystem with SAF+ Consortium as key milestone the airframer's environmental efforts.