Airbus to launch compensation proceedings against Pratt & Whitney over GTF engine delays
March 19, 2026
Airbus is reported to be ramping up its dispute with the engine supplier Pratt & Whitney over GTF engine delays, which are impacting the manufacturer’s own delivery schedule of new aircraft to airline customers.
The dispute, which has been simmering for months, now appears to be boiling over, with sources at the European planemaker stating that the company is to seek financial compensation by way of damages over losses it has incurred through the delays.
Airbus is ramping up its dispute with Pratt & Whitney over delayed engines
According to Airbus sources close to the matter, speaking to Reuters, said that the company is scaling up its dispute with Pratt & Whitney (P&W) and its parent company RTX by seeking damages in lieu of losses incurred as a result of delivery delays.
In February of this year, Airbus said that it was continuing to suffer from delivery delays due to the late delivery of newly manufactured Geared Turbo Fan (GTF) powerplants for its A320neo family of aircraft.
The dispute between Airbus and the RTX-owned engine maker centres around how P&W is prioritising how spare engine parts or entire engines are supplied, plus how engine maintenance issues have all impacted the number of A320neos that Airbus can deliver each month.
P&W’s GTF engines power around 40% of the world’s A320neo family aircraft, with the remaining 60% supplied by CFM International through its LEAP turbofan platform.
Through the ongoing issues with the GTF engines, which have resulted in extended maintenance schedules and the grounding of hundreds of A320neos worldwide, there are too few replacement parts for existing engines, while the production of new engines has also slowed.
This has resulted in finished aircraft standing undelivered at Airbus plants through a lack of engines, leaving both Airbus and the end customer beholden to P&W.
Engine delays impact the number of new Airbus planes being delivered
Airbus had previously accused P&W of breaking assurances over the number of new engines that could be delivered, leaving its own delivery schedule in disarray.
While Airbus recently announced that it still intends to deliver 870 new aircraft in 2026 (many of which are A320neo family models), this number would have been higher but for the ongoing delays in receiving the GTF engines from the supplier, said Airbus.
Airbus is now targeting an output for the narrowbody A320neo family of between 70 and 75 jets a month by the end of next year, stabilising at 75 a month beyond 2027. It had previously predicted 75 a month in 2027, up from the current 60.
Airbus runs out of patience with Pratt & Whitney
P&W has so far responded to the accusations being made by Airbus that it is working closely with the planemaker, whilst also seeking the right balance for airlines struggling to keep existing aircraft in the air.
At a presentation back in February, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury warned P&W that it was running out of patience in terms of an adequate resolution being found, with Faury stating that Airbus was ready to “enforce contractual rights” over the dispute and had already “begun a process” to seek compensation without disclosing further details.
Although any potential quantum of such a claim has not been published in the public domain, the damages are likely to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, reflecting the delivery delay compensation that Airbus will have been forced to pay out to disgruntled customers due to the late delivery of new aircraft.
According to the Reuters sources, no legal forum for the action has been identified as yet, with lengthy negotiations likely to take place over compensation before the case arrives in any court.
Airbus has recent experience of court action, having faced a claim brought by Qatar Airways in 2022 over damaged A350s. The case was heard in the High Court in London. An Airbus spokesperson told Reuters that the company had nothing to add to Faury’s remarks last month, while a spokesperson for RTX declined to comment on the matter.
Ongoing engine delays cause a three-way tussle
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, friction has been building over disrupted supply chains affecting engine manufacturers, planemakers, and airlines. While airlines that operate P&W-powered aircraft back in the air, they also want to receive the new aircraft they have on order on time.
After all, route network growth relies on new aircraft joining the fleet, and without them, route launches are either delayed or cancelled, with the resulting loss of revenue that can ensue.
P&W has therefore been trying to manage a balancing act between maintaining existing GTF engines while keeping up with the supply of new ones to Airbus. This struggle has not been overly successful, with both Airbus and airline customers both now disgruntled with the lack of service from P&W.
Airbus has previously claimed that P&W has been prioritising the engine maintenance side of its business, as this is a more lucrative side of its business (as well as potentially more costly and litigious) than the supply of new engines to Airbus. However, that could all be just about to change if the Airbus legal action and demand for compensation gather momentum.
Featured image: Wizz Air
