Airlines | Airplane engines are in short supply. The business of fixing older ones is booming

 TULSA, Okla. — Parts and labor shortages. Delayed deliveries of new airplanes from Boeing

 and Airbus. An engine recall. Premature repairs. It’s all piling up, and aircraft engine shops around the world are overflowing. 

As travelers boarded planes in record numbers this summer, airline executives waited anxiously for repairs and overhauls of their engines.

The repair and overhaul of engines has swelled from a $31 billion business before the pandemic to $58 billion this year, according to Alton Aviation Consultancy. It’s a cash cow for engine makers like GE Aerospace and the hundreds of smaller specialists that service GE engines, and others made by Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce.