Airbus Hits Out at Pratt & Whitney Over Engine Shortages

Benjamin Katz and Mauro Orru

Thu, February 19, 2026 at 10:03 PM GMT+9 3 min read

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Airbus is slowing down production of its A320. - sergio yate/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Airbus said it would deliver fewer aircraft than expected this year because of significant shortages of Pratt & Whitney engines, issuing a sharp public rebuke of one of its largest suppliers.

Shares of the European plane maker fell as much as 8% on Thursday after the company said the engine issue had forced it to slow production of its bestselling A320 jets—the latest setback in its efforts to capitalize on a postpandemic rush for new aircraft.

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The world’s No.1 plane maker has struggled to source everything from seats to toilets in recent years, making it difficult for the company to assemble and deliver its planes to customers on schedule.

However, while Airbus has previously been open about its frustrations with suppliers, it has broadly attributed delays to postpandemic stresses across the supply chain. On Thursday, it was more pointed, accusing Pratt of failing to meet its contractual commitments for this year and next.

“We see shortages of engines from Pratt & Whitney not matching our needs nor our orders,” Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said on a call with analysts. As a result, the company has had to “significantly reduce” its internal delivery plans, he said.

Airbus now forecasts roughly 870 commercial aircraft deliveries this year. That is an increase on the 793 planes it dispatched in 2025 but below the 907 deliveries that analysts had expected for 2026, according to estimates from Visible Alpha.

The company said it expects to produce between 70 and 75 A320 aircraft a month by the end of next year, down from its previous target of 75. Airbus has repeatedly shifted back those production ambitions, spurred by a flurry of orders coming out of the pandemic. It had originally targeted the 75 rate in 2025.

Faury said the dispute with Pratt was down to the U.S. company’s decision to send more engines to airlines to help keep existing aircraft flying instead of providing turbines for new deliveries. Pratt’s engine—based on a new geared technology—has had persistent durability issues, which have been compounded by quality problems with some components.

Airbus has now triggered a dispute clause in its contract with the enginemaker, a subsidiary of RTX, Faury said, declining to elaborate further.

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“They are not respecting their contractual obligations, so we want to enforce our rights. And indeed we have initiated a process,” Faury told reporters Thursday, criticizing Pratt for not scaling up production enough to meet its commitments.

A spokesman for Pratt referred to comments from RTX CEO Christopher Calio last month noting that engine deliveries rose 50% last year compared with prepandemic levels.

“We’re always going to try to support our customers,” Calio said on a Jan. 24 earnings call. “There’s a balance that we’ve got to bring to bear given what’s going on with the fleet.”

Airbus has faced years of supply-chain disruptions, leading the company to trim its aircraft-delivery goal in 2022, 2024 and 2025.

Its latest setback comes as rival Boeing has started to regain momentum. The U.S. company is now increasing its own production rates after years of manufacturing mishaps, and has made early progress recouping some of the market share lost to Airbus in recent years.

Airbus issued its downbeat delivery forecast alongside fourth-quarter earnings. The company said revenue for the three months to the end of December grew 5% on year to 25.98 billion euros, equivalent to $30.61 billion. Net profit increased 6% to €2.58 billion.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

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