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Read more: Airbus wants to do to SpaceX what it did to Boeing
Airbus (EADSY-0.60%) has been trying to take advantage of Boeing’s (BA-1.91%) struggles, but instead it keeps running into problems of its own. The Wall Street Journal reports that engines for the company’s smaller A220 models are having durability issues that have kept many of the jets using them on the ground.
Citing the analytics firm IBA, the Journal says that more than 20% of the Air Canada (ACDVF+0.66%) fleet and more than 10% of the Delta Air Lines (DAL+0.65%) fleet are earthbound while they’re awaiting a fix for PRX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney’s (RTX-2.45%) flawed turbofan, which it told customers would require inspections at 5,000 miles of flight instead of the previously expected 20,000 miles.
When a door plug blew out on a Boeing 737 Max 9 in January, Airbus told investors that it would working hard to make the most of the competitive opening presented by a Federal Aviation Administration-imposed slowdown in Boeing operations. Instead, it has had to deal with its own manufacturing constraints. In June, the company told investors that it would be lowering the number of planes it thinks it can deliver this year.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told analysts during a July earnings call that the company faces a “degraded operating environment” with “specific supply chain issues and challenges in our commercial aircraft business.” The planemaker has been working to correct those issues to the best of its abilities with “joint improvement plans.”
“It doesn’t mean that we always get what we want on time, but at least we have this high level of transparency and cooperation,” Faury said.