Lufthansa Group has cut its capacity growth projection for 2018 from 12% announced in January to 9.5% due to the delays in deliveries of both A320neo and Bombardier CSeries aircraft, CEO Carsten Spohr said during the presentation of annual results for 2017 on March 15, 2018.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Lufthansa has so far taken delivery of ten A320neo from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac). The airline had hoped to have twice as many by this time, Reuters has reported. The delays have been caused by a technical issue related to Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM engines which have forced Airbus to temporarily suspend deliveries of A320neo aircraft powered by these units. In February, the manufacturer said the delays could last up to six months.

Lufthansa has a further fifty-one A320neo and forty A321neo on order, while its subsidiary Swiss has ten A320neo and five A321neo on order from Airbus.

Swiss also expects the delivery of a further two CS100 and twelve CS300 on top of eight of each that it already operates. The deliveries of the Bombardier jets are also behind schedule.

The Group is also facing issues related to crew retraining following the acquisition of Air Berlin assets and has been unable to meet growing demand through wet-leases due to high demand for aircraft in the market at present. Lufthansa Group continues to talk with LaudaMotion, successor to Niki, about wet-leasing capacity for Summer, although a conclusive deal has not yet been reached.

Out of the projected 9.5% capacity growth for the entire Lufthansa Group in 2018, 5% will be attributed to the mainline carriers Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian Airlines, 2% – to point-to-point subsidiaries Eurowings and Brussels Airlines, while 2.5% will result from the acquisition of parts of airberlin group in late 2017.