Airbus A320neos may get upgraded Pratt & Whitney engines starting this summer: COO Tom Williams

HAMBURG: Airbus expects to start getting the upgraded engines from Pratt & Whitney its A320neo planes this 'summer', its chief operating officer Tom Williams said Monday.
Williams was speaking at the Airbus Innovation Days 2016.

Williams didn't immediately specify a month for the start of delivery of the upgraded engines. An airline executive in India said they should start coming in to airline customers by July.

"By autumn the start time on the Neo will be the same as they are on the Ceo," said Klaus Roewe, head of the A320 programme at Airbus.

"We have worked on this. We are in production already and we are ready to deliver in a few weeks, aircraft with engines which have a very, very tiny modification on the shaft and also on the compressor which will help in reducing the startup time of the engine substantially," he said.

IndiGo, India's biggest local airline by market share, has ordered 430 of the Neos, the upgraded version of the most popular passenger aircraft in the world. It has opted for Pratt & Whitney engines only on the first 180. IndiGo has started getting deliveries of the aircraft. Rival budget carrier Go Air has ordered 72 of the planes.

Airbus last December informed its customers that there would be a delay in deliveries in the Neo or New Engine Option.

The main glitch was in the geared turbofan engine which takes some time to cool off before it restarts. Customers have been pushing Pratt & Whitney to speed up the start time to 90 seconds from 180 seconds.

(The reporter is in Hamburg on the invitation of Airbus)