Farnborough, England (Reuters) -Chief Executive Guillaume Faury was quoted on Monday as saying that Airbus expects the delays in engine deliveries that have been holding up plane deliveries to reach a peak around the middle of the year.
Airbus has had to build some narrowbody A320neo-family jets without engines to keep assembly lines running. This is similar to what happened in 2017 when Airbus had to build dozens of engine-less airframes called “gliders” while waiting for powerplants to arrive.
“It will probably peak around the middle of the year, and we think we’ll get more engines in the second half,” Faury told Flightglobal in an interview that was released at the start of the Farnborough Airshow.
Reuters reported in May that engine maker CFM was facing delays of six to eight weeks because of problems in the supply chain and labour unrest in France. CFM expects to make up for most of these delays by the beginning of the fourth quarter, though.
CFM, which is owned by both General Electric (NYSE:GE) and France’s Safran (EPA:SAF), is the largest jet engine maker in terms of units sold. It powers three out of every four narrow-body jets, including all Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) 737 MAX and about half of Airbus’ A320neo.
It is in competition with Pratt & Whitney on the A320neo, whose engines are also said to be late.
Stan Deal, the head of the part of Boeing that makes planes, said on Sunday that engines were the main problem. Boeing said last week that it had reached its goal of making 31 MAX jets a month, but that it had not yet reached a steady state at that rate.
Deal told reporters, “It doesn’t help us to make planes without engines, so we’ll slow down and work slowly to get that supply chain back and speed up.”
