Aerospace supplier RTX said on Monday 600 to 700 geared turbofan engines (GTF) will have to be removed for quality checks, which will result in a $3 billion to $3.5 billion pre-tax hit to its profit over the next several years.

The quality issue relates to a rare condition in powder metal used to manufacture certain engine parts.

Shares of the company, whose GTF engines power about half of Airbus A320neo fleet of jets, fell 3.6% before the bell.

"The accelerated removals and incremental shop visits will result in higher aircraft on ground," RTX said in a statement.

The company expects to record about $3 billion in pre-tax charge in the third quarter, after partners' share of charges.

Pratt & Whitney is also analyzing the impact of the quality issue on other engine models in its fleet, but that impact is expected to be far less, RTX said.

(Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)