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4/13/2026

A320neo engine shortage: PWA takes all the blame - but why?

Not long ago Airbus claimed, not for the first time, that PWA GTF engines would be late for the A320neo family. his might be true (and why should Airbus lie), but what I wonder about is where are the CFM LEAP-1A engines?
Last year the LEAP-1A had a market share of roughly 60%. Looking at the first 3 months of 2026 and the deliveries of the A320neo family two things are noteworthy:
1. Overall deliveries are lower for the first three months of the year than in 2025: 81 in 2026, but 106 in 2025, so about 24% lower.
2. Looking at the market share we can see that PWA had a market share of roughly 62% for the first three months of 2026.

Can we conclude that the "real" shortage is not with PWA, but with CFM? Of course a shift in market share could also just come from the individual customer demands, which had chosen either the one or the other engine. But such a clear swing in such a short time is not normal.

And if we count the A220 as well with their 19 deliveries PWA has a lead of 69% in the Airbus narrowbody sector.

Let's see how that evolves...

1 comment:

  1. flyasiaMay 24, 2026 at 5:11 AM

    I had the same feeling, but never looked into the numbers. There was a shortage in 2025, with reports (e.g. Flight July 31st, 2025) that the LEAP would catch up by October 2025. And currently, CFM is upgrading older engines for durability. Now if we consider that Boeing is lagging at increasing its production rate for the (LEAP only) 737, in theory that should be (considering all of Boeing's delays) more than enough excess capacity at CFM that should be available to supply additional engines to Airbus. So it looks like Boeing unintentionally is helping to cover a supply issue at CFM. My guess is, that by the time Boeing actually manages to raise the production rate for the MAX, CFM will mostly be finished with the durability upgrades, and the capacity (both for producing kits, and that freed by longer on wing time) will be directed back into building new engines.
    What I read between the lines is that technically, CFM is fulfilling its contract with Airbus, and Pratt is not, which either could be that the contract with CFM is more favorable to CFM, Airbus did a bad planning based on an oral commitment from Pratt that they can not fulfill, but indeed I think that there is an issue at CFM that their corporate communications department is better at handling that Pratt's.

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