About 105 Young Airbus and Boeing Jets Face Dismantling for Scarce Parts

Airlines are waiting years for new aircraft, yet some of the industry’s newest jets are being permanently dismantled. Around 100 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft and five Boeing 737 MAX jets have already been broken up or committed to disassembly, according to Engine Lease Finance Corporation. Some of the A320neos were selected before reaching five years old far earlier than the roughly two decades of service historically associated with aircraft teardown.

The apparent contradiction reflects a major shift in aircraft economics. Scarce engines and reusable components can now be worth more separately than the complete airliner can earn under lease. Dismantling one young jet removes capacity from a constrained market, but its parts can return engines and numerous other aircraft to service.

Two engines can be worth more than the aircraft

Engine values dominate the calculation. The International Air Transport Association estimates that two full-life engines can represent around 80% of a new aircraft’s value, compared with roughly 20% to 30% two decades ago. That concentration means an airframe can become the lower-value portion of its own asset package.

Cirium market data illustrate how far the relationship can move. A six-year-old A320neo had an estimated monthly lease rate of approximately $306,000, while one Pratt & Whitney PW1127G engine could command about $200,000 per month. Leasing two engines separately could therefore produce roughly $400,000 monthly before the owner sells or leases any components recovered from the airframe.

Those figures do not make every young aircraft a teardown candidate. The decision depends on its purchase price, engine condition, maintenance reserves, transition expenses and the market value of individual parts. Records and configuration also matter because a nominally compatible engine or component must meet the receiving operator’s technical and regulatory requirements.

Maintenance bottlenecks increase the value of available hardware

Of the approximately 100 A320neo-family aircraft identified, 65 use Pratt & Whitney PW1100G geared turbofans and 35 use CFM International LEAP engines. Pratt’s engine family has faced durability problems and accelerated inspections associated with contaminated powder metal in some components. IATA reported that 648 GTF-powered aircraft were grounded for maintenance, engines or parts in March 2025, representing about 28% of the fleet at that time.

Pratt & Whitney has since introduced its more durable GTF Advantage configuration, but that upgrade does not replace the required inspections or component replacement for engines affected by the powder-metal problem. Maintenance demand therefore continues to compete for engines, parts and shop capacity while the upgraded design enters the fleet.

The LEAP fleet has not experienced the same powder-metal issue, but its rapid growth creates a different capacity problem. IATA expects annual LEAP shop visits to climb from roughly 600 to 800 in 2025 to more than 5,000 by 2040. Annual GTF visits are projected to increase from about 1,000 to more than 2,000. Repair networks must expand while also supporting aircraft already waiting for serviceable equipment.

IATA estimated that supply-chain disruption cost airlines more than $11 billion in 2025, including $2.6 billion in additional engine-leasing expenses and $1.4 billion for larger spare-parts inventories. Under those conditions, a serviceable engine available now can be more valuable operationally than a future production slot or an engine still moving through an extended shop visit.

One dismantled jet can support many operating aircraft

The airframe also contains a large inventory of recoverable equipment. AerFin says an A320neo can yield between 1,200 and 1,400 reusable components. After dismantling eight A320neos, the company had generated an inventory exceeding 9,000 components. Programs conducted with TARMAC Aerosave can recover or recycle as much as 92% of what remains.

The practice now extends beyond one Airbus family. Two former Spirit Airlines A320neos acquired for teardown were approximately 3.5 and four years old. Four aircraft from EgyptAir’s former fleet of 12 Airbus A220s have been selected for dismantling, including a 2019-built A220-300 whose PW1500G engines were subsequently leased to Delta Air Lines. GA Telesis has also announced its first 737 MAX 8 disassembly program to create a used-component inventory for the MAX fleet.

Teardown is therefore functioning as an unconventional supply-chain release valve. It sacrifices one complete aircraft to create engines and potentially more than a thousand components for the wider fleet. With young donor aircraft now supplying a market that has few naturally retired examples, scarcity has reversed the normal lifecycle: some current-generation jets are becoming parts inventories years before their airframes would ordinarily approach retirement.

By Thomas Caldwell — AMI’s senior editor for mechanical and mobility engineering, covering vehicle electronics, systems integration, electrification, chassis systems, propulsion, and safety policy.