NEW DELHI: American aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney (PW) may have found a solution to the unending woes for its engines powering the A320 new engine option (Neo) aircraft, according to Airbus. The European aircraft major has told TOI “corrective action has already been approved by European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and PW has begun to deliver engines with an advanced configuration”.
Airbus had decided not to deliver any A320 Neo to customer airlines with PW engines till the snags were not rectified completely. This decision was taken after EASA had on February 9 issued a warning of a potential “dual engine” inflight shutdown on A320 Neo-family aircraft powered by PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) engines. Given the constant snags, India has grounded Neos of IndiGo and GoAir.
A senior DGCA official said, “Both IndiGo and GoAir have started getting pre-450 serial number engines (different from the problematic variant) from PW.”
Since these two airlines have together ordered hundreds of A320 Neos, Airbus’ decision to stop delivery of planes with PW engines had dealt a severe blow to both their growth plans.“As is customary, we do not reveal delivery schedules for our aircraft. That is a prerogative of our customers,” Airbus said.
However, it remains to be seen how effective the new fix that PW has found for its troublesome Neo engines proves to be. The latest problem had arisen after it had tried to fix earlier snags.
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Before these issues, Airbus India head Srinivisan Dwarakanath had estimated that Airbus would deliver an aircraft a week to Indian carriers over the next decade. “We have to deliver 545 planes to Indian carriers, of which 515 are A-320 new engine option or Neos,” he had recently said.
While facing delivery delays due to PW engine troubles, Airbus is focussing on building a strong supply chain here. The European major as of now has no plans to have a final assembly line and delivery centre in India — while having the same in China for both narrow and wide-body planes.
