NEW DELHI : IndiGo and GoAir have replaced bulk of the glitch-prone Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines powering their Airbus A320neo planes and are on track to meet a May-end deadline for completing the upgrade mandated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Each Airbus A320neo plane is powered by two P&W engines. At present, only IndiGo and Wadia Group-owned GoAir operate these aircraft in India.
India’s largest domestic carrier IndiGo, which has 106 A320neo planes in its fleet, will replace all 212 older engines with modified engines by May-end, thus bringing down chances of on-air snags, a senior DGCA official said.
At the end of February, IndiGo had 152 modified engines. It is expected to have 167 modified engines by March-end and 189 by April-end, said the official mentioned above on condition of anonymity.
GoAir, which has 43 A320neo planes in its fleet, is expected to have as many as 67 modified engines in its fleet by March-end, the DGCA official said. The delivery schedule for the remaining engines is awaited, the official said.
Both IndiGo and GoAir have maintained that they will abide by the DGCA directive and replace all older engines by May-end.
A spokesperson for Airbus in India said “we are fully committed to complying with the DGCA directive on replacing the engines and are making rapid progress towards the goal".
IndiGo and GoAir have been permitted to fly their planes on the condition that at least one of the two engines on the A320neo aircraft has been modified, until modifications are made to all the faulty P&W engines. However, such a step may not provide adequate safeguard.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had issued a warning in December about potential dual-engine failure on A320neo planes fitted with P&W engines. In an airworthiness report issued in December, EASA said low-pressure turbine blades on some P&W engines on A320neo planes had low damage tolerance and could immediately “fracture", or develop cracks, on impact.
Indian airlines, which have about a fourth of the global fleet of about 585 Airbus A320neo planes, have so far seen 26 cases of P&W engine failures related to low pressure turbines (LPTs) out of a total of 56 such cases worldwide.
To address the issue, DGCA has taken steps such as restricting operations of A320neos over large water bodies to cities such as Port Blair, besides directing airlines to instal engines with modified third-stage LPT. It has also set a deadline for airlines to replace all engines with modified ones by May-end.
“DGCA is continuously monitoring the performance of these engines and taking appropriate action to address the issues," the official said.
“Manufacturers have been directed to ensure sufficient availability of spare engines for Indian operators to prevent grounding of aircraft because of removal of engines," the official said.
Most of the problems involving P&W engines have been addressed by the manufacturer, except for third-stage LPT failures.
Meanwhile, P&W has set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul unit in Mumbai in collaboration with Air India to replace third-stage LPTs.
