After Go First, Lufthansa cites issue with Pratt & Whitney engine, grounds third of A220 fleet
3 min read . Updated: 04 May 2023, 04:48 PM IST
PremiumLufthansa Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said that the idling of the narrow-body aircraft is on top of three other ‘brand new’ aircraft with Pratt engines that are also down.
Deutsche airline carrier Lufthansa AG on Thursday informed that they had grounded a third of its Airbus SE A220 fleet in Zurich owing to problems with Pratt and Whitney engines. This comes as a crucial reminder for airlines ahead of the summer travel season.
Lufthansa Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said that the idling of the narrow-body aircraft is on top of three other “brand new" aircraft with Pratt engines that are also down.
“Way down in their supply chains there are elements missing and companies need to rebuild their production facilities," Spohr said.
Lufthansa operates 30 A220s at its Swiss subsidiary, implying about 10 aircraft are grounded at present. The company is considering ordering significantly more of the model as it renews its regional jet fleet, Bloomberg News has reported.
Carriers around the world are dealing with a shortage of engines and spare parts, particularly on their latest-generation workhorse narrowbody jets. Suppliers to Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of the Raytheon Technologies Corporation, have struggled with a backlog of subcomponent orders.
Go Airlines India Ltd. this week filed for insolvency protection, blaming failing Pratt & Whitney engines for grounding about half its fleet of Airbus aircraft at a time when demand for travel is soaring.
Pratt & Whitney engines have also forced budget airline in India Go First India Ltd to to keep part of its fleet of brand-new Airbus SE jets on the ground for a total of 17,244 days over the past three years.
“There have been numerous, persistent, and continuing technical issues with the defective GTF Engines supplied by Pratt," the carrier, which sought insolvency protection this week, said in a filing dated April 28. Pratt has failed to comply with an arbitration order in Singapore that mandated it to supply spare engines and parts to the airline, leading to “a significant risk that Go First will go out of business and be forced to declare bankruptcy," according to the filing.
The airline had to ground 30.5% of its Airbus A320neo fleet in 2020, 25.6% in 2021, and 33.9% in 2022, as Pratt failed to provide new engines and spares. That added up to a total equivalent of more than 47 years of potential flying time between January 2020 to February 2023 when aircraft were forced to be on the ground.
Pratt & Whitney, which spent $10 billion to develop a new engine only to meet with delivery delays and multiple issues leading to mid-air shutdowns in the past, has disputed the claims. The unit of Raytheon Technologies Corp. said the Go Air matter is subjudice, and it continues to prioritize delivery schedules for all customers.
While the engine-maker acknowledged it is bound to honor the arbitration award in an April 3 communication, it informed Go Air that no spare leased engines are available, according to the court filing. The engines due to be released from repair shops were committed to other customers before the arbitration award was announced, Pratt told Go Air, the filing showed.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)