Travellers face years of flight route cancellations over plane parts shortage

Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have announced further suspension of routes

Rolls-Royce said supply chain conditions are challenging (PA Archive)

The parts shortage which has forced British jet engine maker Rolls-Royce’s airline customers to ground jets could go on for years, an expert has warned.

Flight cancellations are expected to increase as airlines struggle with shortages of parts for the Trent 1000 engine which powers long-haul Boeing 787 Dreamliner craft, with British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic among the carriers most affected.

Industry experts warn that these supply chain disruptions reflect deeper challenges in aerospace manufacturing that are unlikely to be resolved quickly.

Nick Cunningham, an aerospace and defence analyst at Agency Partners, told The Independent that workforce shortages and global supply chain bottlenecks could keep affecting flights for years. BA and Virgin Atlantic have already begun cancelling additional long-haul flights due to issues with the Trent 1000 engines fitted to their aircraft.

Virgin Atlantic announced today it would suspend the launch of flights to Accra, Ghana, next summer, while the return of flights to Tel Aviv has been delayed until the end of next March.

A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 (PA)

Last month, BA similarly postponed the launch of a new Heathrow-to-Kuala Lumpur route and suspended one flight a day between London Gatwick and New York, and between London Heathrow and Doha.

Virgin Atlantic acknowledged the “difficult decision” to delay these services, saying its teams are “working closely with [our] partners at Rolls-Royce on solutions to minimise disruption.”

In a previous statement, BA noted that it had made Rolls-Royce “aware of the impact” these issues were having on its schedule and passengers and that it was seeking “reassurance of a prompt and reliable solution.”

Rolls-Royce said that it was actively working with BA and other affected airlines to “minimise the impact” of limited spare part availability, an issue that has affected the entire aerospace industry.

The engine manufacturer has faced ongoing challenges in delivering Trent 1000 engines, which it says can enhance the fuel efficiency of British Airways’ 787 Dreamliners by approximately 20 per cent.

Earlier this year, Rolls-Royce announced it would invest £1 billion over the next five years to implement upgrades across its Trent engine line, aiming to improve both fuel efficiency and durability.

In the meantime, the company has mobilised a dedicated task force from engineering, supply chain, and planning teams to address the backlog. However, limited access to parts and an overtaxed maintenance system have left a portion of BA’s Dreamliner fleet grounded, forcing the airline to rely on older Boeing 777 aircraft.

With those older planes also requiring increased maintenance due to their heavy workload, BA has been left with few alternatives to relieve strain on its international schedule.

Rolls-Royce attributes these delays to ongoing supply-chain issues, which Mr Cunningham says are causing engineering solutions to take much longer than they used to.

He explained that these supply chain issues will likely continue to disrupt the aerospace industry for several years, as the root problem—a shortage of skilled workers—requires a long-term solution.

“It’s a very deep and abiding issue that's going to take a long time to fix, because it's going to take a long time to train up enough people, and then you need to hang on to them,” he said. “That starts with training kids at college. So that gives you an idea of the time scale involved. It's going to take years.”

He also noted that the disruptions are not limited to Rolls-Royce engines but affect almost every aspect of modern aerospace production.

“We can expect more cancellations because the industry is getting far fewer new airplanes compared to what is expected,” he said.

This shortfall stems from delays in both aircraft production and the availability of critical engine parts, as “all modern engines have been pushed to the limits of physics,” making them more prone to issues that require complex fixes and specialised parts.