SWISS is having two Airbus A220s, only ten years old, scrapped. The Swiss airline made this drastic decision to obtain vital parts for the remaining aircraft in its troubled fleet.

The A220s' PW1100 engines are the primary problem: due to teething problems, they need to be replaced, but that takes a lot of time. This is a global issue that also affects Embraer E2s and A320neos.

SWISS already decided earlier this year to ground seven of its nine A220-100s. Since then, the engines from those aircraft have been used to keep the larger A220-300s in the air.

According to Aviation Week, at least two A220-100s will never fly again. The aircraft with registrations HB-JBC and HB-JBD, which are currently stored in Toulouse, are being dismantled, SWISS confirms.

The airline had previously stated it would ground the A220-100s for a year and a half. According to the company, it has not yet been definitively decided whether the A220-100 will ever return to service.

The A220-100 has not exactly proven successful for Airbus. Since its introduction in 2009 (then still as the Bombardier CS100), just over 100 of that version, with room for 125 passengers, have been sold. Delta Air Lines is by far the largest customer with 45 units. On the other hand, more than a thousand A220-300s (formerly CS300) have now been ordered.

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* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)