Lowering expectations
The story is a familiar one. We wrote about the airline having to adjust its A321neo expectations for 2019 last August. 13 A321neos were expected last year – taking its overall fleet to 15. However, the airline only received 12.What's going on at Airbus?
While the 737 MAX situation and its delivery-delays to airlines has received a healthy amount of coverage, the Airbus A321neo situation has been less prominent. Despite being more under the radar than the MAX crisis, Airbus has been dealing with ongoing production problems with the A321neo. FlightGlobal reports that this is because Airbus is working through the complexity of producing three versions simultaneously: the A321ceo, A321neo and A321 ACF/LR (Airbus Cabin Flex/Long Range).“Our priority is to prepare the production system for sustainable long-term growth with more A321s. That’s one of the areas of challenge we have to manage...We are stabilising our delays in spite of the ramp-up, and then from 2021 we want to be back on track. Between stabilising and resolving, it takes more time.” -Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO at the 2019 Dubai Air Show
Not just Turkish Airlines
Conclusion
It seems, for now, some delays are actually coming at an opportune time as the coronavirus outbreak has reduced passenger traffic for many airlines around the world. In fact, AirAsia X wants to delay deliveries of its A330neo because of the impact of the outbreak.
Of course, with the complexities of airline orders and the manufacturing process, it's not easy to take a delayed delivery and instantly make it an on-time delivery for an airline that's further along in the queue. If we assume that the coronavirus outbreak will come to an end before the summer, then many of these airlines will still have to deal with insufficient capacity for a peak travel period.