JetBlue said it expects shop visits for its geared turbofan (GTF) engine to take nearly a year to complete on February 14, 2025.
The inspections for the contaminated powdered metal parts of the GTF engine resulted in 11 aircraft on ground as of the end of 2024.
“The company currently expects each removed engine to take approximately 360 days to complete a shop visit and return to a serviceable condition,” said the company in a stock filing.
The engines power its A220 and A321neo fleets and relate to engines manufactured between October 2015 and September 2021. For 2025, JetBlue expects aircraft out of service to average in the mid-to-high teens.
The airline noted that is “current dependence” on five specific type of aircraft and engines for its fleet makes it “vulnerable to any significant problems” on these engines. Aside from the A220and A321neo fleets, the airline has a fleet of A320 and A321 jets, as well as a fleet of E190s. The latter fleet will be fully retired by next year and replaced with A220-300 aircraft.
“Given that we expect to have a certain number of aircraft groundings into 2025 and beyond, we plan to continue to assess the resulting impact on our future capacity plans," the company read in a filing. "We are currently working with Pratt & Whitney on a resolution and any potential remediation steps remains uncertain. Carriers operating a more diversified fleet are better positioned than we are to manage such events.”
The company had an operating fleet of 290 aircraft as of the end of last year.
The stock filing noted that its maintenance costs will increase as its fleet ages. “In the past, we have incurred lower maintenance expenses because most of the parts on our aircraft were under multi-year warranties, but many of these warranties on JetBlue's existing fleet types have expired,” the filing read. “If any maintenance provider with whom we have a flight hour agreement fails to perform or honour such agreements, we could incur higher interim maintenance costs until we negotiate new agreements.”
The airline noted that with its various fleet modifications planned over “the next several years”, these will require “significant investment” and also involve taking aircraft out of service for days or weeks at a time.
The company also noted its aging workforce increasing costs as well as the company being “highly dependent on the availability of fuel".
“Given our large dependency on New York harbour jet fuel, we may be impacted more than our competitors by these price spikes due to decreases in refining capacity and increases in US exports filling the void left by Russia,” JetBlue read in the filing. The company highlighted the volatility of New York harbour jet fuel, which has ranged from $1.97 to $7.59 per gallon between 2022 and 2024.
Furthermore, JetBlue said the “competitive nature” of the domestic market had limited its ability to “adequately increase" its fares to offset fuel prices.