At airports from New York to CASTELLON DE LA PLANA in Spain, some of the youngest Airbus jets are not boarding passengers, they are being stripped for parts. The sight of a barely used A320neo having its engines unbolted has become a stark symbol of an aviation system where powerplants are now worth more than the airframes they are attached to. I see airlines tearing into brand‑new jets because, in a distorted market, the engines have become the scarcest and most valuable asset they own.
Behind the spectacle is a grinding shortage of modern turbofans, a maintenance crunch and a record order backlog that has left carriers scrambling to keep schedules intact. Instead of waiting months for repairs or fresh deliveries, they are cannibalizing new aircraft, betting that sacrificing a few hulls will keep the rest of the fleet flying.
The perfect storm that turned engines into gold
The basic economics start with a simple imbalance, demand for aircraft and engines has surged faster than factories and repair shops can cope. The International Air Transport Association has warned that global airline growth is colliding with a constrained industrial base, with Dec analysis pointing to a record‑high order backlog that will take years to unwind. While deliveries of new aircraft began to pick up in late 2025, production is only expected to accelerate gradually in 2026, and While demand is forecast to stay ahead of supply well into the next decade. That gap has turned every spare engine into a kind of hard currency.
Engines are also stuck in the shop for longer. Consultancy work out of BOSTON has projected that Aircraft engine maintenance and repair will peak in 2026, worsening an already tight capacity shortage for commercial aviation and driving up the cost of operating constrained fleets. A separate look at shop visits has highlighted how a worldwide shortage of parts, skilled labor and new aircraft after the post‑pandemic boom has pushed engine turnaround times to historic highs, with Jul data showing maintenance times higher than ever.
From Castellón to Facebook, almost‑new jets in the scrapyard
The most vivid illustration of this imbalance sits on the tarmac at Castellón Airport in Spain, where rows of almost‑new Airbus A320neo family jets are being dismantled. Reporting from CASTELLON DE LA PLANA has described how engine shortages, particularly involving Pratt & Whitney units, have sent almost‑new Airbus jets to the scrapyard. Social media images from At Castell show pristine fuselages with their nacelles removed, with one viral post captioned that New Airbus Jets Because Their Engines Are Worth More Than the Plane.
Some of the youngest Airbus A320neo jets, Barely six years after rolling off the line, are already being parted out instead of flying passengers, a fate highlighted in Some of the images shared with aviation fans. A detailed breakdown of the economics has noted that, Normally, an airline would just keep older jets in the air until new ones became available, But hundreds of jets have been grounded by engine problems and the powerplants themselves have become so valuable that Jet Engines Are that nearly new Airbus planes are being scrapped just to free them up.
Delta’s tariff‑busting workaround in New York and Europe
Delta has become the highest profile example of an airline turning new aircraft into engine donors. Over the summer, the carrier began taking delivery of Airbus jets in Europe, then removing their engines and flying those powerplants to the United States to keep older aircraft in service. One analysis of the strategy described how delta Airlines is leaving brand new fit‑for‑flying Airbus airframes in Europe while the engines cross the Atlantic, a reversal of the usual delivery pattern. Financial reporting has framed the move as a response to a domestic shortage, with Delta Strips Engines to Overcome US Shortage and keep its Airbus fleet operating out of New York.
There is also a trade policy twist. Under a tariff regime first enacted during the Trump administration, aircraft built in Europe are subject to a 10 percent levy when imported into the United States, a cost that applies to complete jets but not to individual parts. Delta’s chief executive has effectively acknowledged that the airline is exploiting that gap, with one account explaining that Under that policy, it is cheaper to import engines separately than to bring in a whole Airbus from Europe. A separate video breakdown of the tactic has underlined how Why Is Delta has as much to do with tariffs as with the raw scarcity of spare units.
Manufacturing defects, maintenance bottlenecks and leasing in limbo
Engine makers are not just struggling with volume, they are also wrestling with quality problems that have grounded aircraft and soaked up shop capacity. Supply chain issues continued to be a heated topic at recent industry gatherings, with one detailed report noting that Supply problems are now compounded by a secondary market driven by manufacturing defects. Airbus has warned that these pressures are not going away quickly, with executives signalling that Airbus Expects Supply to Drive More Engine Shortages in 2026 as problems at suppliers ripple into the final weeks of each year.
The leasing sector, which traditionally cushions airlines from shocks, is now caught in the same squeeze. Lessors have warned that engine availability is slowing aircraft deliveries and forcing them to rethink contracts, with one industry paper describing how Leasing in Limbo has become a defining feature of the market. Historically, only around 4 percent of engines produced were sold as spares, but that share has jumped as manufacturers prioritize loose engines over complete aircraft, a shift laid out in Historically focused analysis that shows how the supply chain has not caught up.
A long runway of scarcity into the 2030s
All of this is happening against a backdrop of structural scarcity that industry bodies say will last for years. Forecasts for the next decade suggest that Supply chain strife will keep demand for aircraft & engines ahead of available production into the 2030s, with Supply and Demand for new jets both constrained even as Global airline growth remains strong. A companion statement from the International Air Transport Association has underlined that, While deliveries of new aircraft are improving, the industry still faces While bottlenecks across the aerospace supply chain and a record‑high order backlog that will take much of the decade to clear.
For airlines, that means the logic of tearing apart brand‑new planes for their engines is unlikely to disappear quickly. At face value, it would appear to make no sense, an A320neo airframe could theoretically fly for decades, yet carriers and lessors are already dismantling a 6‑year‑old A321neo because the engines can earn more revenue elsewhere, a calculation laid out in At face value reporting. I see the same pattern in social posts that show Some of the youngest Airbus jets heading to the breaker’s yard, with Some of the captions lamenting how aviation has become “completely broken.” Until engine makers, maintenance shops and the wider supply chain catch up, the uncomfortable truth is that this kind of cannibalization is not a bizarre outlier but a rational response to a market where the engines, not the aircraft, are the real prize.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
