Airbus has signalled the end of the engine crisis that has kept a chunk of the global Airbus A220 fleet on the ground. Airbus Canada says the technical issues behind the groundings have been “largely resolved,” and both Airbus and Pratt & Whitney now expect that no A220 will remain parked because of GTF engine problems by the end of 2026.
Guillaume Chevasson, head of the A220 programme and chief executive of Airbus Canada, delivered the message at a media briefing held at the Mirabel production site in late June. He told reporters that “the AOG crisis is over,” describing the remaining technical issues as “close to zero.” AOG — aircraft on ground — is the industry shorthand for jets that cannot fly, and it has become an all-too-familiar term for A220 operators over the past two years.
The numbers point to a genuine turnaround. According to Airbus, only about 2 to 3 percent of the A220s that are currently grounded are down to GTF engine issues; the remaining parked aircraft are out of service for ordinary reasons such as heavy maintenance or routine storage. That is a sharp improvement from roughly 17 percent of the global A220 fleet that was sitting parked or inactive as recently as November 2025.
The A220 has been hit particularly hard by the wider Pratt & Whitney geared-turbofan saga. Unlike the A320neo family, which lets airlines choose between the P&W GTF and CFM International’s LEAP, the A220 is powered solely by the PW1500G. That single-source dependence left A220 operators especially exposed when durability problems forced engines off the wing for inspection and repair, with limited options to swap in an alternative powerplant.
Pratt & Whitney has been working to dig the fleet out. The engine maker has expanded its maintenance and overhaul capacity and introduced technical improvements aimed at cutting shop-visit times and returning engines to service faster. Airbus and Pratt & Whitney both expect those measures to eliminate GTF-related A220 groundings before the close of 2026.
For operators, the reassurance is welcome after a punishing stretch. The engine shortage has rippled across the industry, grounding hundreds of A320neo-family jets worldwide and squeezing capacity just as travel demand recovered. Some A220 operators felt the pain acutely: persistent GTF complications pushed at least one carrier, Air Austral, to move away from the type entirely. Returning the parked A220s to the skies would give airlines back valuable narrow-body lift heading into 2027.
There is still work to do before the last grounded jet is back in the air, and Airbus framed the update as the resolution of a crisis rather than a declaration that every issue has vanished. But after two years in which the A220’s engines defined the conversation around the aircraft, the message from Mirabel marks a clear shift in tone — from damage control to recovery.
Sources: Simple Flying, ch-aviation. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Elena Vargas.
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