SINGAPORE—Philippine Airlines (PAL) may soon have more of its Airbus A321neo fleet grounded due to escalating engine availability issues.
The carrier currently has four of its eight A321neos grounded because of maintenance backlogs for Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines, PAL President Stanley Ng told Aviation Daily on the sidelines of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) annual meeting in Singapore. This long-running issue is affecting several A320neo-family operators worldwide.
One of these aircraft is undergoing maintenance now, and there is a possibility that it may be activated soon, Ng said. This would cut the grounded total to three.
However, the airline is assessing the effects of new issues identified with some GTF engines related to powdered metal components. There could potentially be four engines affected by this, meaning two aircraft possibly grounded, Ng said. The worst-case scenario for PAL is a total of five neos could be grounded at once.
PAL has 13 A321neos remaining on order, and Ng said the short-term delivery timetable for these is unclear.
The carrier also operates about 30 A320ceos and A321ceos in its fleet. It can use these on some routes normally operated by the neos, although the product is different, Ng said.
PAL is seeing strong demand on its routes to the U.S., Ng said during an AAPA panel discussion. Like many other airlines, however, its China and Japan capacity is still lagging as these markets have been slower to recover. PAL will slowly grow back its networks to China and Japan, Ng said. Domestically, the carrier has been connecting more destinations on routes that it did not serve before the pandemic.
The airline’s international capacity, as measured in weekly seats, has recovered to 82.4% of 2019 levels, according to CAPA – Centre for Aviation and OAG Schedules Analyser data. PAL’s domestic capacity has almost fully recovered.
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