Why nearly new A320neos are being scrapped for parts

An Airbus A320neo built for Spirit Airlines in July 2022 was stripped for parts and crushed outside Phoenix this May, when it was less than four years old. CNBC reports that this is part of a wider pattern. Aviation data firm IBA Group counted 21 newest-generation aircraft torn down from June 2025 through August 2026, at an average age of 6.4 years. The average retirement age for narrow-body planes is 21.7 years. According to CNBC, a major reason is the long wait and rising prices for jet engines.

The background you need

A narrow-body is a single-aisle jet, the type that flies most short and medium routes. The Airbus A320neo family is one of the most popular. Neo stands for new engine option: Airbus paired an existing airframe design with newer, more fuel-efficient engines. According to CNBC, the A320neo family uses engines from two makers. One is Pratt & Whitney, a unit of RTX. The other is CFM International, a joint venture of GE Aerospace and France’s Safran.

A jet engine has to come off the wing from time to time for a shop visit. That is an overhaul at a specialized repair facility. While the engine is in the shop, the plane needs a spare engine. Without one, it sits on the ground and earns nothing.

CNBC describes two problems that have clogged this system. First, the newest engines burn hotter and use less fuel, and they are coming up for maintenance far earlier than airlines expected. Second, Pratt & Whitney issued a recall in 2023 after finding contaminated powdered metal used in making some parts. Powdered metal is a manufacturing method in which parts are formed from fine metal powder. A contaminant can create a weak spot, so the affected parts must be inspected or replaced. CNBC says the recall grounded hundreds of Airbus planes worldwide and backed up repair shops. Spirit bore the brunt of it in the United States.

Many airline jets are not owned by the airline. Leasing companies buy aircraft and rent them to carriers. When a plane is idle, its owner has three broad choices:

• put it back into service
• store it
• part it out, meaning dismantle it and sell the components into the aftermarket, the secondhand parts market

Storage is not free. According to CNBC, fees vary by aircraft type. Planes are often parked in the desert because the dry climate helps preserve them and avoid corrosion.

Here is an analogy. Picture a nearly new car stuck waiting for a backordered engine part while you pay rent on its parking spot every month. If a parts dealer offers you more for its components than you would get by waiting, selling it for parts can make sense, even though the car is young. The analogy breaks in two places. Car owners almost never face a market where a single component rents for six figures a month. And people rarely scrap young cars, while these aircraft are being torn down at well under a third of the typical retirement age in IBA’s figures.

What actually changed

Some of this is old news. Engine problems have exasperated airlines and driven up costs for years, according to CNBC. The Pratt & Whitney recall dates to 2023. Airlines have also been pulling engines off retired planes to keep other aircraft flying while their own engines are in the shop.

What is new is how young the scrapped planes are, and how many of them there are. Bill Thompson of EirTrade Aviation, the firm that bought the four-year-old Spirit plane, told CNBC it was the first purchase of his career involving an aircraft less than five years from its manufacture date. He said EirTrade paid single-digit millions each for that plane and a similarly aged one. He also said the firm expects to profit from selling the more than 1,000 parts it took off them. Dave Querio of Ascent Aviation Services, which repairs, stores and disassembles aircraft, told CNBC he has not seen this volume of younger aircraft being torn down before.

The prices explain why parting out can pay. According to IBA, the recalled Pratt & Whitney engines are worth close to $17 million this year at the high end. That is up 60% from the upper end of the range in 2019. Renting one costs about $160,000 to $180,000 a month, per IBA data. The competing CFM engine rents for a similar $130,000 to $180,000 a month. AerFin CEO Simon Goodson told CNBC that a single fan blade could cost $50,000, or more than $100,000 for bigger jets. Engines on some A320neo aircraft have 20 of those blades. CNBC adds that an engine disc could cost $1 million to $2 million.

Spirit’s collapse earlier this year added a new source of supply. It brought more of the airline’s Airbus fleet to market, according to CNBC. The owners of those planes now have to decide whether waiting for engines and parts is worth it. But CNBC is clear that young retirements predate the collapse. The plane crushed in May had been in storage because of the engine recall, and it stayed there until it was torn apart.

What it means for developers who invest on the side

The core mechanism is a simple comparison. CNBC reports that in some cases, owners can get more for the parts than they would from selling the plane, or from paying storage and waiting for it to fly again. An aircraft’s age matters less in that comparison than the scarcity of its components. Goodson summed up the trader mindset: “Please don’t fall in love with the metal.”

That gives you a few things to check when aviation news crosses your feed:

• Who sits on which side of the shortage. Engine repair shops, from those owned by GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney to smaller independents, are backed up, CNBC says. Airlines and lessors are hunting for spare parts and engines. Trading firms such as AerSale, AerFin and EirTrade buy, sell and part out aircraft. High engine and parts prices are a cost for some of these players and revenue for others. When you read a company’s results, ask which side it is on.
• Teardown counts as a gauge. A young plane gets torn down when waiting for repairs looks worse than selling the parts. Keep tracking figures like IBA’s count. A rising or falling number tells you something about the balance between engine supply and demand.
• Engine rental rates. CNBC describes current rents as record levels. They are a direct read on how scarce flyable engines are.
• Where Spirit’s planes end up. CNBC says some will be sold for parts, some may stay in storage, and others may fly for other airlines. The mix will show how owners are weighing the wait against the parts value.

What we don’t know yet

• How long the real waits are. Querio contrasted a one-year wait with a three- or four-year one when describing aircraft that came in during 2023, 2024 and 2025. CNBC does not report measured wait times for engine repairs.
• The trend inside IBA’s count. CNBC gives a total of 21 over about 15 months. It does not say whether teardowns sped up or slowed down within that period.
• The fate of Spirit’s fleet. CNBC describes the options but gives no numbers for how many planes will be scrapped, stored or returned to service.
• When the recall backlog clears. The sources do not say when repair shops expect to catch up.
• Exact deal economics. EirTrade disclosed only a single-digit-millions purchase price and an expected profit, not actual figures.