How Airlines Are Dealing With A Shortage Of Aircraft

The height summer travel season has arrived, and the aviation industry is seeing airlines’ ramped-up flight programs going well underway worldwide. During this era last 12 months, the industry saw primary problems stemming from labor issues, leading to quite a few disruptions as airlines and airports lacked sufficient staffing capability to fulfill driving passenger demand.

And although this 12 months has seen workforce figures inside the global aviation industry improve decently, numbers elsewhere are faltering and proving insufficient. The continuing supply chain issues have caused severe shortages in aircraft parts, highlighting how one other recent problem awaits to supply potential disruptions this summer.

Grounded fleets and delayed productions

Although airlines at the moment are more financially capable of place larger aircraft orders to expand their fleets, the delivery timeline is equally uncertain because it is delayed as aircraft manufacturers cannot increase their production output. With such significant shortages and waiting times for even the smallest spares prolonged to months, the manufacturers are unable to maintain their production lines running as quickly as need be.

Photo: Michael Gordon | Shutterstock

And suppose delayed aircraft productions weren’t a difficulty itself. In that case, airlines have also needed to ground small percentages of their fleet because the shortage of spares has resulted in aircraft repair shops being unable to conduct the required maintenance. As an unlucky result, aircraft repair shops have been filled to the brim with no specific deadline on when maintenance could be accomplished and when these aircraft could be reactivated.

As no recent aircraft are coming through quickly enough, and existing aircraft being unable to be repaired on time, airlines are facing an alarming capability crunch amidst an important time when capability is the precise number they should keep increasing to fulfill the surging demands. With such a big problem at hand, airlines have needed to resort to other solutions to spice up their capacities.

Aircraft revivals and wet-leasing

One solution amongst major carriers worldwide is the revival of varied aircraft that were previously stored and considered left for scrap within the desert throughout the pandemic. Take the Airbus A380 for instance; so lots of the aircraft type were quickly left to be parked within the desert, with some airlines subtly hinting at completely dissociating themselves from the superjumbo.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy Flying

But when capability was desperately needed, major carriers equivalent to Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Etihad Airways, and Lufthansa brought back the Airbus double-decker and reinstated them for energetic flight services. Even for individuals who didn’t operate the Airbus A380, equivalent to Philippine Airlines, the resurrection of any stored aircraft still provides a viable solution to spice up capability in dire times.

Unfortunately, aircraft revival takes a comparatively very long time with required maintenance and flight checks, and time is something airlines cannot currently afford. This implies turning to the next-best solution that involves a business that airlines have been doing since previously – except leasing used aircraft is becoming an increasingly hotter market than ever before.

When scouring worldwide from aircraft charters and lessors, airlines have resorted to accepting aircraft initially meant for other airlines that defaulted on their agreements. In contrast, others have needed to wet-lease not only from aviation firms but additionally from other airlines. Monthly lease prices on types just like the Airbus A321neos have surged 12% since January 2022, while Boeing 737 MAX 8 rates are no less than 17% higher.

Photo: Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Bottom line

Albeit such solutions have been working in favor of boosting airlines’ capacities for essentially the most part, it’s evident that such solutions are genuinely only helpful for the short-term. Particularly on the answer of wet-leasing, which is the least sustainable of the 2 despite being the quickest. But given how urgent airlines require extra seats this summer, they do not appear to have much selection.