By Tim Hepher and Marta Maciag
PRAGUE/GDANSK (Reuters) -Wizz Air aims to end engine-related groundings of its Airbus aircraft by the end of 2027, a top Wizz executive said on Tuesday, with the CEO later adding that it was up to engine maker Pratt & Whitney to determine the schedule.
The comments come as the airline industry continues to complain of supply chain challenges around the world, including from major engine manufacturers such as RTX-owned Pratt & Whitney and CFM International.
The number of aircraft grounded by long waiting times for inspections has fallen to 38 from a peak near 60, Wizz Chief Financial Officer Ian Malin said. At the half-year stage, Wizz said it had 41 aircraft grounded due to GTF engine-related inspections.
“Overall, the plan right now is to get the entire fleet unparked by the end of calendar year 2027. That is the target that we’re working towards,” Malin told the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) conference in Prague.
“I mean we don’t fully control our destiny here. We are at the mercy of the manufacturer,” Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi later told journalists in Gdansk after his CFO spoke on Tuesday.
Varadi told Bloomberg in September that he aimed to turn Wizz Air’s fortunes around by mid-2027.
Varadi said that he had “pretty good confidence” that the entire fleet would be available by the end of 2027 but that there was no “absolute guarantee.”
A Wizz Air spokesperson declined to provide official comment on any changes to the timeline.
Hungary-based Wizz has struggled in recent years to compete financially with other European carriers as it grapples with the engine challenges. The groundings have limited its ability to increase capacity and it has issued two profit warnings.
“Pratt is actually showing some availability of engines, but the overall turnaround time is not improving…Pratt has said that that’s coming down. I haven’t seen it yet,” Malin said.
“It is extremely frustrating, because we’ve been dealing with it for now two-and-a-half years,” he added.
Pratt & Whitney parent RTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. aerospace group’s CEO Chris Calio said in September that cases of aircraft on the ground due to Pratt engines have stabilized, and are expected to come down, but “clearly we have more work to do.”
The company expects maintenance, repair and overhaul service to be up 30% year-over-year.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher in Prague and Marta Maciag in Gdansk; Additional reporting by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
