Locatory.com aviation marketplace data for August 2026 reveals two very different trends developing simultaneously across the aircraft aftermarket.
On the demand side, procurement teams continued to search heavily for standard hardware and A320-family airframe and landing-gear components, reflecting the operational requirements of narrowbody fleets flying at high utilization.
On the supply side, however, scarcity is becoming increasingly concentrated around a much more specific segment: GE90 engine-control components for the Boeing 777.
Standard hardware represented 44.9% of Locatory.com’s August 2026 Top 50 Most Searched list, while A320-family airframe and landing-gear components remained prominent. At the same time, engine components dominated the Hardest-to-Find list, accounting for 37.2% of searches, with GE90/Boeing 777 parts occupying a significant share.
Three GE90 component groups have now remained on Locatory.com’s Hardest-to-Find Top 50 list for four consecutive months, from May through August: the FADEC cluster comprising PN: 105E70898G1, PN: 105E70898G2 and PN: 105E70898G3; the HMU control assembly, PN: 1693M75P08; and a temperature/pressure sensor, PN: 0154GF9.
What airlines and MROs were searching for in August
Among the 50 listings included in August’s Most-Searched list, standard hardware accounted for 44.9%.
This category included a combination of generic consumables, such as PN: CR3522-5-03, PN: CR3524PR6-03 and PN: S700N1518, alongside Airbus-specific seals and stock material, including PN: FA261-51100-000, PN: NSA360040-8614 and PN: ABS5310-01.
Airframe and landing-gear components followed, representing 24.5% of the list.
Nine of the month’s 50 listings, equivalent to 18% of the entire Top 50, were related to the A320 family. These included a main landing-gear wheel assembly, PN: C20500100; a nose landing-gear wheel assembly, PN: 3-1531-3; a carbon main landing-gear brake assembly, PN: C20534100; and a landing-gear bearing, PN: 201587209.
Engine parts represented only 16.3% of the most-searched volume during the month. The components included a CFM56-5B bolt for the A320 aircraft family, PN: 83769H16-14; a B757 ignition plug, PN: 305766-1; and a CF6-80 drain, PN: 1775M13G03.
Taken together, the Most-Searched list reflects the record summer load factors and the continued reliance on mature fleets reported across the aviation industry by Aviation Week during the season.
Scarcity is concentrating around the GE90
The situation looks markedly different when examining Locatory.com’s Hardest-to-Find list.
Engine components led the category rankings, accounting for 37.2% of all searches. They were followed by electrical and avionics components at 20.9%, airframe and landing gear at 18.6%, and standard hardware at 16.3%.
The significance of the August data is not limited to the overall share of engine components. The location of those components within the scarcity rankings is particularly notable.
One third of the Top 50 Hardest-to-Find parts list was associated with GE90/Boeing 777 components.
The cluster covered a broad family of engine-control and thermal-management equipment, including three FADEC unit variants, PN: 105E70898G1, PN: 105E70898G2 and PN: 105E70898G3; an IDG check valve assembly, PN: 1548-05-12; an HMU control assembly, PN: 1693M75P08; a fuel-oil cooler lube servo assembly, PN: 1838M88P03; and an oil-fuel heat exchanger assembly, PN: 1838M88P11.
The list also included three IDG air-oil cooler interface dash numbers, PN: 1838M91P06, PN: 1838M91P07 and PN: 1838M91P08, as well as three HMU dash numbers, PN: 1851M65P04, PN: 1851M65P05 and PN: 1851M65P06. A bonded upper panel assembly, PN: 116W2501Y501, was also among the difficult-to-source components.
More importantly, this pattern can no longer be viewed as a one-month shortage signal.
A comparison of Locatory.com’s monthly Hardest-to-Find lists dating back to May shows that the FADEC trio, PN: 105E70898G1/G2/G3, the HMU control assembly, PN: 1693M75P08, and the GE90 temperature/pressure sensor, PN: 0154GF9, have all appeared for four consecutive months.
Why the GE90 pattern is emerging
The growing concentration of difficult-to-source GE90 components is consistent with the maintenance stage now facing a large part of the engine fleet.
GE Aerospace has stated that approximately 70% of the GE90 installed base has yet to reach its second shop visit, a stage that typically involves a substantially heavier maintenance workscope.
At the same time, GE90-powered Boeing 777 aircraft continue to play an important commercial role within long-haul fleets, particularly as aircraft delivery constraints delay replacement decisions.
The result is a specific aftermarket dynamic.
These engines are entering more maintenance-intensive stages of their lifecycle while the aircraft they power remain actively deployed in commercial service.
Heavier shop visits increase demand not only for major engine hardware, but also for controls, accessories, valves, heat exchangers and other repairable LRUs moving through removal, inspection, repair and exchange cycles.
The repeated presence of FADECs, HMUs and related GE90 components across the Locatory.com marketplace is therefore consistent with this broader industry trend.
The pressure is also extending beyond the GE90 platform.
GE Aerospace reported more than 25% year-on-year growth in spare-parts revenue during Q2 2026, alongside record internal shop-visit output. Earlier in the year, spare-parts orders were running more than 30% above the previous year, while the volume of parts shipped later than promised continued to rise.
The figures suggest that even increased production and maintenance output have not yet fully closed the gap between aftermarket demand and available supply.
Heavy maintenance season will bring more buyers into the same sourcing pool
As Northern Hemisphere summer flight schedules begin to ease, more planned base-maintenance activity traditionally shifts into the autumn and winter period.
This year, that seasonal transition is taking place at a time when the aviation aftermarket already has limited flexibility.
Delayed aircraft deliveries are keeping mature fleets in service for longer, while newer engine programmes are adding further pressure to shop-visit demand. Repair turnaround times also remain elevated across several major maintenance categories.
IATA estimated that airlines spent $1.4 billion on additional spare-parts inventory in 2025 to protect their operations against supply disruption.
In the latest industry survey, 75% of MRO respondents reported longer turnaround times for engines and APUs. The figure stood at 60% for landing gear and 49% for airframe checks.
As heavy maintenance activity accelerates, these pressures increasingly begin to overlap.
Airlines, MROs, engine shops, lessors, distributors and asset traders can all find themselves drawing on the same pools of serviceable inventory, exchange programmes, repair vendors and used serviceable material.
Competition is not limited to the parts themselves. It also extends to maintenance-shop capacity, component repair slots, technicians, tooling, spare engines and logistics resources.
For procurement teams, this environment makes earlier visibility and access to a broader supplier base increasingly important.
When several maintenance programmes require the same material at the same time, dependence on a limited number of established suppliers can quickly become a sourcing constraint.
This is where Locatory.com can help expand the sourcing pool. Buyers can search aircraft-parts inventory and MRO capabilities from suppliers across the global aftermarket, giving procurement teams additional options when their usual sources cannot meet a particular requirement.
Components that were already difficult to source in August could therefore face even stronger competition as the heavy maintenance season develops.
September and October marketplace data will indicate whether this additional maintenance demand translates into higher search activity and deeper scarcity across key aircraft-part categories.
