Originally Posted by
EWR764
Nothing to do with lower bookings, although the TLV and DXB suspensions have enabled some more widebody slack for the time being. Pratt & Whitney has been tied up with GTF remedial work and a four-week strike that ended about a month ago, so sourcing parts for the PW4000 series (many fewer in service) has been challenging.
United's priority in the summer is the longhaul ER fleet, so 2 of the 777-200ERs with PW4090s have been parked chiefly as engine donors to support those. The non-ER have PW4077 engines which are not compatible with the ERs, hence temporarily parking N219UA and N221UA. By way of example, since the EWR-TLV was suspended, both EWR-MUC and BCN went from 777 to 787-10, and EWR-LAX/SFO have seen late swaps to Polaris-configured 777s. These changes are a direct result of this cascade.
Great info, very interesting. So the engine issue that 219UA had really has nothing to do with it being parked -- moreso it's just for usage of spare parts as you noted. Great stuff! On a side note, any insight as to how frequently an engine is fully replaced on a fleet? For example across the 777 fleet, is it realistic to think that numerous engines are changed / replaced each year for various reasons?