The US-based Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies, is in news in India for problems with its faulty engines supplied to Airbus used by IndiGo and GoAir airlines.
The top three aircraft engine manufacturing companies are Pratt & Whitney, GE Aviation and Rolls-Royce.
Pratt & Whitney (P&W) received headlines in India when IndiGo and GoAir airlines’ 50 flights were cancelled following direction from the India Government. Usually, engine makers do not make headlines in consumer dailies unless they make innovations.
In fact, Airbus, which sourced airline engines from Pratt & Whitney, was not part of the scrutiny by aviation analysts in India. According to a Reuters report on February 9, 2018, Airbus announced A320neo Pratt & Whitney GTF engine issue.
Both IndiGo and GoAir had to spend more on reputation management because they were forced to cancel flights impacting several hundreds of travellers across India.
This time, Pratt & Whitney President Robert F Leduc promised to both Indian airlines saying that the grounded aircraft belonging to IndiGo and GoAir over engine related safety concerns will be back in operation by April-end.
“Indian authorities took a decision to ground the fleet in India that have engines of this that had the design escape. We’re disappointed with that decision. By the end of April, that fleet will be back up in the air flying in India,” Leduc said during a recent UTC investors’ call.
“We’re going to retrofit and rework the 55 engines that we shipped previously back to Airbus. We will make our full year production commitment to Airbus. There’s still a certain amount of engines to support their aircraft delivery profile. We will make those deliveries,” Robert F Leduc said.
Directorate General of Civil Aviation on March 12 asked IndiGo and GoAir to ground 11 A320neo aircraft fitted with PW1100 engines. IndiGo operates 8, while GoAir operates three airlines, DGCA said.
After DGCA’s direction, all the A320neo aircraft with PW1100 engines beyond serial number 450 have been taken off operations in India.
Previously, DGCA had ordered grounding of three aircraft in IndiGo’s A320neo fleet after European Aviation Safety Agency issued an emergency directive regarding similar A320neos on February 9.
Baburajan K
