NEW DELHI: World aviation physique Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation (IATA) on Tuesday mentioned that it expects provide chain points to proceed to influence airline efficiency into 2025, elevating prices and limiting progress.
FILE PHOTO: A passenger plane descends to land at Heathrow Airport in London. (REUTERS)
IATA, which represents about 340 airways that comprise over 80% of world air site visitors, mentioned that the common age of the worldwide fleet has risen to a file 14.8 years, up from 13.6 years common for the interval 1990-2024.
“The estimate for 2024 deliveries is 1,254 aircraft, a 30% shortfall on what was predicted going into the year. In 2025, deliveries are forecast to rise to 1,802, well below earlier expectations for 2,293 deliveries with further downward revisions in 2025 widely seen as quite possible,” an IATA assertion mentioned.
It added that the backlog for brand new plane has reached 17,000 planes.
“At present delivery rates, this would take 14 years to fulfil, double the six-year average backlog for the 2013-2019 period. However, the waiting time is expected to shorten as delivery rates increase,” it added.
The variety of parked plane or plane on floor (AOG) is 14% of the full fleet, of which round 2% are parked for engine inspections.
“We expect this situation to persist into 2025. Supply chain issues are frustrating every airline with a triple whammy on revenues, costs, and environmental performance. Load factors are at record highs and there is no doubt that if we had more aircraft, they could be profitably deployed, so our revenues are being compromised,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director basic mentioned.
“Meanwhile, the ageing fleet that airlines are using has higher maintenance costs, burns more fuel, and takes more capital to keep it flying. And, on top of this, leasing rates have risen more than interest rates as competition among airlines intensified the scramble to find every way possible to expand capacity. This is a time when airlines need to be fixing their battered post-pandemic balance sheets, but progress is effectively capped by supply chain issues that manufacturers need to resolve,” he added.
Walsh mentioned the aviation sector was united in its dedication to attain internet zero carbon emissions by 2050 however with regards to the practicality of truly getting there, airways have been left bearing the largest burden.
“The supply chain issues are a case in point. Manufacturers are letting down their airline customers and that is having a direct impact of slowing down airlines’ efforts to limit their carbon emissions. If the aircraft and engine manufacturers could sort out their issues and keep their promises, we’d have a more fuel-efficient fleet in the air,” he mentioned.