Spare Engine Market Values Match List Prices

During the depths of the Covid Event, the values of spare engines suffered a significant fall even as the list price continued to increase. The narrowbody market in particular has recovered to a large extent although a shortage of staff has prevented the overall fleet being returned to pre-Covid levels. With aircraft being returned to service and increased utilization there is again a need for spare engines to cover when engines are being overhauled. With lead times for engine overhauls extending, this increases the pressure on the spare engine market. This is further compounded by the OEMs lagging behind in terms of manufacturing spare engines and parts due to supply chain issues. This has translated into higher values for narrowbody spare engines in particular. The GTF and LEAP engines have also suffered from reliability issues that have seen an increase in the demand for spare engines. The value of a new spare engine has therefore been increasing and is now the same as the list price. Hawaiian has experienced issues with the GTF such that its third quarter capacity has not increased as expected when compared to 2022 due to the need for accelerated inspections of engines which has made it necessary to take aircraft out of service. The fires on Hawaii also had an impact. In July 2023, Pratt & Whitney announced that 1,200 engines would need to be returned for inspections and partial disassembly because of possible defects in the HPT disks.