Several grounded Boeing 777-200 aircraft in United Airlines’ fleet will have to wait a little longer to be operational again. These planes were grounded following an incident of uncontained engine failure in February 2021, where parts of an aircraft’s Pratt & Whitney engine were showered upon a residential area in Denver.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) immediately launched an investigation into the incident and soon released a preliminary update after discovering damage to two fan blades. Since the aircraft in question was fitted with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 series engines, all other similarly configured planes drew scrutiny. United Airlines had to ground 24 Boeing 777 jets, while several other airlines were also affected.

Return of grounded 777s delayed

24 airframes being grounded overnight will have significantly impacted United Airlines’ schedules and future plans. While the grounding has been in effect for over a year now, there were signs that these aircraft could return to the skies soon. But it looks like the planes won’t return to United’s fleet for another month or more.

CNBC accessed an internal note sent by United Airlines to its pilots, saying,

“Due to the delay in the return of our PW777 aircraft to active service, the May flight schedule is being reconfigured to account for the lack of these aircraft. [The grounded aircraft are] being removed from the schedule through May 12 and removed from international/Hawaii routes through May 25,”

United Airlines also issued a public statement saying,

“We continue to work conscientiously with Boeing, Pratt & Whitney and the FAA to safely return these aircraft to service soon, and our current plan will allow them to return in the second half of May.”

United Airlines is missing out

As mentioned, 24 aircraft isn’t a small number for any airline, and United will indeed be feeling the effects of all that grounded capacity. This becomes all the more important as the global aviation industry seems to be on the brink of a record-breaking summer travel season. Passenger numbers are slowly creeping up to pre-pandemic levels, and some two dozen widebody jets would come in very handy for United right about now.

To compensate for the lack of capacity due to these grounded 777s, United Airlines brought a few of its old Boeing 767-400ERs back into service in late March 2021. While this may seem like the best interim solution for the carrier, the old Boeing jets are not as efficient compared to modern alternatives. As the 777 grounding drags on, United will be at an acute cost disadvantage over the competition due to the old 767s.

Proposed measures

Following a closer look at the P&W engine that experienced an uncontained failure over Colorado, the FAA suggested several measures to ensure such incidents don’t happen again. The body issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) enforcing stricter inspection methods for PW4000 series engines. More specifically, the AD mandated operators of these engines to inspect the fan blades using Thermal Acoustic Imagery techniques.

What do you make of the PW777 grounding? Do you think the aircraft will fly again anytime soon? Please, let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: CNBC