73% Of Engines On Airbus A-320 Planes Used By Indian Carriers Replaced After Mid-Air Technical Snags
Saurabh SinhaUpdated on Apr 25, 2017, 11:10 IST
As many as 73% of the snag-prone Pratt & Whitney (PW) engines powering the 26 Airbus A-320 new engine option (Neo) currently with Indian carriers have been replaced by the US aerospace company.
Top aviation sources say PW has changed 38 engines in India so far on airplanes of IndiGo and GoAir — which use the combination of A-320 Neo and PW engines — due to a spate of technical snags in the equipment since last year.
IndiGo and GoAir currently have 21 and five A-320 Neos, respectively.
Of the 52 PW engines on the 26 A-320 Neos in India so far, 38 — 73% — have been changed.
"The changed engines belong to the first lot of planes delivered to the airlines. As problems arose in its engines for the A-320 Neo globally, PW started making changes.
So the problems, which are yet to be contained fully, were more in the first lot of engines and they needed to be changed. The incidence of snags has gone down after the engines were changed on such a large scale," said a source.
IndiGo — Airbus' biggest customer of the A-320 Neo with 430 of these planes on order — and GoAir did not comment on the massive engine replacement by PW.
AI also uses A-320 Neo but uses CFM engines and so will Vistara when it gets its Neos.
"This is an issue that must be addressed by PW. We will not comment on this," said an official of one of these airlines.
In a statement, PW said it "with the support of Airbus, is actively working with our customers in India and we are supporting them in their daily operations.
The PW PurePower GTF engine employs advanced technology and has been in operation for more than one year. It has more than 100,000 hours of passenger service and is utilised by 13 operators flying 250 flights per day to over 100 destinations on four continents."