As reported by VnExpress, Vietnam Airlines has grounded 12 of its aircraft for maintenance due to engine issues.
This article will cover the details surrounding Vietnam Airlines’ aircraft groundings due to their engine issues.
Vietnam Airlines 12 Aircraft Grounded
Becoming another operator adding their aircraft grounding due to Pratt & Whitney engine issues, Vietnam Airlines has grounded 12 of its Airbus A321neos.
These 12 aircraft represent approximately 20% of the airline’s domestic fleet. These are part of the over 3500 A321neo/A320neo aircraft that are suffering from this issue globally.
In fact, with these issues, the aircraft will be grounded for up to 300 days, as reported by the carriers Chief Executive Officer, Le Hong Ha.
As this delay is caused by supply chain issues which have resulted in a doubling of their maintenance time.
The operator has a current fleet of 20 Airbus A321neos, as well as, 45 Airbus A321ceos that form its domestic fleet.
In terms of its long haul fleet, they have 14 Airbus A350-900s, 11 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner’s and four Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner’s.
Vietnam Airlines also has a five A320neos, four 787-10s, two A321P2Fs and 50 737 MAX 8s on order.
Pratt & Whitney Engine Issues
Back in July 2023, RTX, the parent company to Pratt & Whitney, had reported that they’ve discovered an issue with their PW1100G-JM GTF engines.
This is due to a rare condition in its powder metal used as part of the engine’s HPT (High-Pressure Turbine) stage 1 and 2 discs.
This condition could lead to premature cracks happening on those discs, risking possible uncontained disc failures.
However, this discovery has been the result of many operators having to ground their aircraft for inspections and repairs.
Furthermore, this will only effect engines that were manufactured between October 2015 and September 2021.
PW GTF Operators
The below is a list of all PW1100G-JM GTF engine operators of the Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft.
However, it needs to be disclosed that this issue will not affect all of these listed operators.
- Aegean Airlines – Greece
- Air Astana – Kazakhstan
- Air China – China
- Air Macau – Macao
- Air New Zealand – New Zealand
- Aircalin – New Caledonia
- Air Transat – Canada
- All Nippon Airways (ANA) – Japan
- AnadoluJet – Turkey
- Austrian Airlines – Austria
- AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines – Azerbaijan
- Cebu Pacific – Philippines
- China Airlines – Taiwan
- China Express Airlines – China
- China Southern Airlines – China
- Delta Air Lines – United States
- FlyArystan – Kazakhstan
- Frontier Airlines – United States
- Hawaiian Airlines – United States
- HiSky Europe – Romania
- Hong Kong Express – Hong Kong
- IndiGo – India
- ITA Airways – Italy
- jetBlue – United States
- JetSMART – Chile
- Juneyao Airlines – China
- Korean Air – Republic of Korea
- LATAM Airlines Group – Brazil
- Lufthansa – Germany
- Marabu Airlines – Estonia
- MEA Middle East Airlines – Lebanon
- Philippine Airlines – Philippines
- Qingdao Airlines – China
- S7 Siberia Airlines – Russia
- Scoot – Singapore
- Shenzhen Airlines – China
- Sichuan Airlines – China
- Spirit Airlines – United States
- Swiss – Switzerland
- Tianjin Airlines – China
- Tigerair Taiwan – Taiwan
- Turkish Airlines – Turkey
- United Airlines – United States
- VietJetAir – Vietnam
- Vietnam Airlines – Vietnam
- Viva Aerobus – Mexico
- Volaris – Mexico
- Vueling – Spain
- West Air – China
- Wizz Air Group – Hungary
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