Airbus Gets Green Light for 235 Deliveries by Year-End After P&W Fulfills Orders

Engine maker clears supply bottleneck, unlocking path for European planemaker to hit ambitious 820-jet target by year-end

Pratt & Whitney announced it has delivered enough engines for Airbus to reach its goal of 820 aircraft deliveries by the end of 2025, clearing a critical supply chain hurdle that has constrained production for the European planemaker.

Airbus delivered 585 planes through October, leaving an ambitious 235 aircraft to complete in the final two months of the year. Engine supply from both Pratt & Whitney and CFM International has been cited as one of the primary bottlenecks limiting Airbus deliveries this year.

The announcement represents a supply chain victory for the aerospace industry, which has struggled to return to pre-pandemic production levels. Engine shortages have forced airlines to wait longer for new aircraft while demand for air travel rebounds.

“We are aligned with the deliveries with them for the balance of this year… anything we’re delivering now is for next year,” Rick Deurloo, Pratt & Whitney’s president of commercial engines, told reporters in Dubai ahead of this year’s air show.

Pratt & Whitney, an RTX company, has produced more than 85,000 engines for over 17,000 customers since its founding 100 years ago in 1925. The company’s current commercial lineup is led by the Geared Turbofan family, which has been adopted by planemakers including Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and Irkut.

The most popular engines on Airbus aircraft are the PW1100G-JM variant for the A320neo family and the PW1500G for the A220 family. Pratt & Whitney is the exclusive supplier of powerplants for the A220, and roughly half of all A320neo orders include P&W engines.

Recent production issues have complicated the recovery. A320 aircraft were grounded for retrofit after material defects were discovered in some engines. A number of A220s around the world remain grounded due to corrosion effects from production issues.

Despite the setbacks, Pratt & Whitney has caught up with its order backlog and is now developing a next-generation narrowbody powerplant in collaboration with Airbus, Boeing and Embraer.

Airbus faces a steep challenge to meet its year-end target. The planemaker will need to produce 117 planes per month to hit its quota. The company continues to reaffirm that it is not lowering its target for the year, and looking ahead to 2026, Airbus is aiming higher still.

Pratt & Whitney currently has the capacity to support a rate of 63 A320neo deliveries per month, but Airbus wants to bring that figure up to 75 per month. P&W is in talks with Airbus to industrialize to the new, higher level by 2027.

Deurloo told Reuters that his company is “talking to Airbus on a daily basis” as the two manufacturing titans plan to expand A320neo production and support the aircraft in service to reduce maintenance downtime. Pratt & Whitney has invested significantly in new production equipment for the cutting-edge next-generation engine it is developing, though the company has not disclosed details publicly.

The production milestone comes during a historic year for Airbus. September production numbers from Boeing and Airbus revealed that the Airbus A320 series had surpassed the Boeing 737 for most aircraft delivered in the history of commercial aviation. The A320 crossed the 12,250 total delivery mark, overtaking the long-reigning champion.

Aside from the World War II-era Douglas DC-3 Skytrain, the 737 has been the best-selling airliner since it debuted in the late 1960s. That legacy of over six decades was eclipsed by the low output of 737 MAX jets and the A320neo’s success since it debuted in 2016.

Airbus has a backlog of 7,262 orders.