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Home » Travel » Airbus A220 Engine Woes Ground 22% of Fleet
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Airbus A220 Engine Woes Ground 22% of Fleet

Kyle Stewart Posted onOctober 19, 2025October 19, 2025 8 Comments

New data pegs A220 groundings at roughly 22% while fresh reports suggest far more inspections are looming. Here’s what that means for flyers and airlines.

Air Baltic Airbus A220 taxiing

A Shiny New Jet With Defective Engines

Bombardier’s clean-sheet narrowbody, rebadged as the Airbus A220, should have been a slam dunk for short-haul efficiency. Operators love the cabin, pilots praise the handling, and fuel burn is solid. Yet the headliner has been the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G. Durability problems inside the geared turbofan family have pushed engines into the shop much earlier than expected, with corrosion and powder-metal defects implicated in premature wear and cracking. See the PW1000G operational history for corrosion and life-limit reductions, which includes the PW1500G that powers every A220. 

Groundings Stand At 22%

Figures from industry data cited by FlightGlobal show that of 367 A220s in the global fleet, 79 were out of service in mid-October; about 22% of the entire type fleet. That data point better reflects where operators have been living lately. These groundings join over 500 more down due to the issue, though many of those are A320 family jets, and about 17% of the global Embraer E-190/195 E-2s fleet as well. 

Climbing To… 42%?

The Wall Street Journal reported that, per IBA’s August 2024 estimates, about 15% of A220s were grounded and another 42% of the fleet was at an age where inspections had happened or were due. The Journal and others can only speculate using a combination of 2024 and current 2025 data; it does not guarantee 42% will be parked at once. However, it does support concern that a large portion of the fleet could cycle through inspections and maintenance in the near term for an extended period.

Why Airlines Are Still Nervous

Pratt’s wider GTF issues have tied up hangars and spares pools across multiple engine subtypes, and turn times remain painful. Even as fixes roll out, planning departments cannot assume quick relief. Swiss, one of the marquee A220 customers, told Aviation Week this week that A220 engine reliability woes are likely to “continue throughout the decade,” with a double-digit number of short-haul aircraft already parked. That is a sobering message from a flagship operator with a relatively small fleet of the type.

Breeze uses the A220 as the backbone of the fleet, and Delta has favored it as of late too especially for specific city pairs. For operators like JetBlue, it’s a problem that affects multiple aircraft the company operates and the dire prognosis from Swiss has to be the most discouraging news possible.

Walking Away From The Type

Some carriers have already taken drastic steps. EgyptAir exited the A220 after prolonged inactivity tied to engine issues, and Air Austral announced this week plans to retire its A220-300 fleet amid persistent PW1500G reliability troubles. Two examples do not make a mass exodus, yet they show how sustained shop visits and parts scarcity can push smaller operators to cut bait. 

The Passenger Angle

For travelers, the headline effect is schedule churn. When a fifth of a fleet is unavailable, passengers experience aircraft swaps, re-timed schedules, and occasional cancellations. The A220 remains a lovely ride (when it flies), but network planners need predictability. Until engine turnaround times normalize and spares pipelines loosen up, airlines will keep juggling. Broader GTF coverage this summer underscored that durability fixes are progressing, but grounded counts across GTF-powered fleets have been sticky. 

On our A220 flight with JetBlue in August, my family loved the aircraft. It offered a roomy cabin experience, modern equipment, and the economics help carriers keep prices down.

Jetblue Airbus A220 row 1

Most travelers don’t associate their flight with specific aircraft types but rather the experience onboard. They will choose to fly carriers with space for their carry-on, a charger for their phone, and IFE. They will choose Southwest over American from fly-over cities in middle America because they prefer a big jet over a regional without IFE and gate checking their luggage. The A220 gives customers a big jet feel and airlines get the economic benefits of a regional jet.

Conclusion

The A220 is not a lost cause. It is an advanced, comfortable narrowbody that, on paper, solves the right problems for short-haul networks and, most importantly, long thin routes for the medium haul market. The reality today is tougher. Credible industry data puts current A220 groundings around 22% and reputable reporting gives cover to the idea that up to 42% of the fleet could pass through inspections due to engine age and durability considerations.

Add in high-profile exits from EgyptAir and Air Austral, and you can see why confidence has taken a hit. The fix will come from two fronts: hardware durability improvements that extend time on wing and supply-chain relief that shortens shop turn times. When those arrive in tandem, the A220 can get back to doing what it was built to do. Until then, expect airlines to keep flying it where they can, and to keep a careful eye on the maintenance facilities.

What do you think? 

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About Author

Kyle Stewart

Kyle is a freelance travel writer with contributions to Time, the Washington Post, MSNBC, Yahoo!, Reuters, Huffington Post, Travel Codex, PenAndPassports, Live And Lets Fly and many other media outlets. He is also co-founder of Scottandthomas.com, a travel agency that delivers "Travel Personalized." He focuses on using miles and points to provide a premium experience for his wife, daughter, and son. Email: sherpa@thetripsherpa.comEmail: sherpa@thetripsherpa.com

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8 Comments

  1. Güntürk Üstün Reply
    October 19, 2025 at 4:17 pm

    An unfortunate and thought-provoking situation. It’s also another reason why those with a fear of flying will be put off by air travel.

    Dr. Güntürk Üstün

  2. Güntürk Üstün Reply
    October 19, 2025 at 4:37 pm

    Too regrettable for airBaltic, whose entire fleet of 50 aircraft consists of A220-300s (average age of 5 years).

    Dr. Güntürk Üstün

  3. UA_Flyer Reply
    October 19, 2025 at 4:49 pm

    I guess I was lucky. I was on Air Baltic operated Swiss flights a couple of times last month, and it went out on time and thoroughly enjoyed the flights.

  4. 1990 Reply
    October 19, 2025 at 4:52 pm

    Uh oh, that’s not great. I really like the a220 overall, namely because of the 2-3 configuration in Economy, the ‘2’ of which is great for couples. And, the super-sized windows. Wish Delta would ditch its remaining 717s and get more a220s, but, of course, Airbus and Pratt & Whitney gotta get this fixed.

  5. ted poco Reply
    October 19, 2025 at 5:13 pm

    Moral of the story is never select an American company if you want quality..

    • 1990 Reply
      October 19, 2025 at 7:23 pm

      Cheer up, Ted. We Americans have made some cool stuff over the years; let’s say P&W’s parent company, RTX and Raytheon, are better known for their… ‘destructive’ rather than ‘constructive’ products *cough*

  6. PW Reply
    October 19, 2025 at 8:02 pm

    It’s not “aircraft swaps, re-timed schedules & occasional cancellations” that bother me.
    It’s the notion that good people’s lives end in a death spiral caused by poor management, unsafe design & criminal manufacturing.
    Wasn’t there a time this would not have been allowed?
    (Save any flight safety stats, please–this is just another air tragedy waiting to happen.)

  7. Tim Dunn Reply
    October 19, 2025 at 10:16 pm

    It has less to do with the A220 and much more with the Geared Turbofan.

    It is simply because the A220 is smaller than the A320NEO family that also uses the GTF that Pratt and airlines have prioritized parts for the larger Airbus jets. The E2 jets also use the GTF but there are much fewer of them.

    Still, there is no doubt that some airlines including Spirit, have paid a very high price for Pratt’s production issues and the compensation that is being offered is nowhere near enough to cover the cost of carrying unflyable aircraft.

    Although Delta has grounded some of its A220s (and the smaller -100s) for engine issues, they, I believe have all of their A220s in service – and they are the world’s largest operator of the A220.
    Delta Tech Ops is the authorized maintenance and overhaul airline provider for the GTF in the Americas so that undoubtedly helps DL.

    There have been almost 950 A220s ordered with a backlog about half that amount so the plane is still growing in popularity.
    Airbus has repeated hinted at a -500 that would seat 160 passengers and be right where the MAX8 and A320NEO is now but w/ far better economics and passenger comfort.
    Obviously, they have to get production levels increased which is related in part to the number of engines which Pratt and Whitney can provide.

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