The International Bureau of Aviation (IBA), an aviation consultancy company, announced that reduced demand for air travel related to the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant effect on aircraft engine values. 

The company data presented a sharp drop in sales of new engines as customers were offered to purchase used engines instead of new ones with a discount of 30% or even more.

The reduction in demand has deeply affected the wide-body engine market. According to IBA.iQ data, the value of the Trent 980 engines, which are used in Airbus A380 aircraft, has dropped by up to 50%. However, the value of the Trent XWB engines, which powers the Airbus A350XWB jet, shrunk by only 1%, announced IBA in an engine market update webinar.

Meanwhile, in the narrow-engine market, IBA outlined a slightly lower jump in engine value changes. The company counted that the recovery in a demand in some regions of Asia, where particular types of engines are widely used, helped to save particular variants of engines from a sharp value drop. According to IBA, the value of engines used for Airbus A320ceo and Boeing 737NG jets dropped by up to 12%.

The company announced that in the narrow-engine market, Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737MAX engines PW1100 and LEAP were affected the least. IBA counted that these two engine variants remained stable, only dropping their value by up to 4%.

Statistical IBA’s data also showed that in the first half of 2020, pandemic-related massive aircraft grounding worldwide resulted in a significant decrease of 70% in engine shop visits compared to the same period in 2019.

IBA predicted that a downturn of engine values and shop visits would recover no sooner than in 2024.