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Roughly a year after being forced to ground a significant portion of its fleet to conduct inspections of Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engines, Mexican ULCC Volaris is seeing improvement in turnaround times for returning the powerplants to service.
Volaris—which has previously expressed some skepticism about Pratt’s ability to enhance MRO capacity as well as the availability of materials and spare parts—had an average of 34 Airbus A320neo aircraft grounded during the third quarter (Q3). This is improving slightly to 32 in the fourth quarter (Q4).
“The overall wing-to-wing time, including inductions and turnaround at the shops,” has been reduced significantly, Volaris CEO Enrique Beltranena said during a Q3 earnings call on Oct. 23, from “350 days previously now closer to 300 days.”
Volaris currently has a “strong pipeline” with multiple engines undergoing various stages of maintenance and several more scheduled to enter that pipeline before year-end, Beltranena said.
All of those inductions are confirmed with materials and spare parts, and as a result, Volaris’ outlook for engine redeliveries during the next six months “is looking very solid and reliable and very comparable” to the capacity growth Volaris has planned for the first half of 2025 once the carrier completes its budget and operating plan for next year, Beltranena said.
Joining Volaris’ CEO in the discussion, the carrier’s EVP of airline commercial and operations Holger Blankenstein reiterated the airline was still finalizing its plan for next year, but “we’re looking at growth in the mid-teens for the first half of 2025, approximately, and that’s still a little bit under discussion depending on the situation at Pratt & Whitney and Airbus.”
Beltranena said Volaris would not deploy excess capacity beyond what emerging markets typically can absorb and pointed to the airline’s flexibility in managing if engines are returned earlier than expected, including the ability to return aircraft to lessors. “We will remain prudent and rational as we reintroduce capacity into the market,” he said.
Overall, Volaris’ capacity has fallen 11% over the last 12 months compared with 2023. Beltranena said during that time the decrease in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) moved at a slower pace than the drop in available seat miles (ASMs), “indicating a well calibrated approach to capacity management.”
For the nine months ending in September, Volaris’ RPMs decreased 13.7% year-over-year and ASMs fell 15%.
During the 12 months when engines have been grounded for inspections, Volaris maintained its base fares at 2019 levels while increasing its ancillary revenues as a percentage of operating revenues from 34% in 2029 to 51%, Beltranena concluded.
During Q3, Volaris posted operating revenue of $813 million, a 4% drop year-over-year. The airline’s expenses fell 15% to $687 million. The airline posted a net income of $37 million compared with a loss of $39 million the year prior.
Despite battling a significant number of grounded aircraft during the last year, which reduced the carrier’s capacity by double digits, Blakenstein said Volaris expects its total revenue for 2024 “to be close to 2023.” The company posted roughly $3.3 billion in operating revenues for 2023, a 14.5% increase from 2022.
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