Seven Of The Airbus' A320neo Planes Of Spirit Airlines Are Affected By Pratt & Whitney GTF Engines'

Though Pratt’s performance and fuel efficiency are in good order, its reliability has been a major woe for many operators. Now, as per Chief Executive Officer Ted Christie, Spirit Airlines will have to ground seven Airbus' A320neo planes in September through the end of the year due to a snag with RTX's Pratt & Whitney engines.

Raytheon Technologies (RTX) last week said a "rare condition" in powdered metal will force 1,200 GTF engines built for the twin-engined Airbus A320neo between 2015 and 2021 have to be inspected off-wing for the micro cracks due to fatigue.

Not long before , Spirit CEO Ted Christie had said ,

“Over the last six months, the GTF NEO engine has experienced diminished service availability, an issue that has been steadily increasing over this period.”

“Pratt & Whitney continues to struggle to support its worldwide fleet of neo aircraft as MRO capacity remains constrained and turnaround times for engines in the shop have been nearly three times longer than the historical averages for ceo engines.”

In October 2021 , Spirit Airlines had signed an agreement with Pratt & Whitney, through its affiliate, IAE International Aero Engines, for PW1100G-JM engines to power its latest order of 100 new Airbus A320neo Family aircraft, and the agreement included options for another 50 aircraft. 

Spirit Airlines, which is the largest operator of GTF-powered A320 NEO fleet in the United States, was forced to cut the 2023 capacity estimates , due to unscheduled engine removals.

According to Christie, Sprit has 13 engines in the first group of engines that Pratt & Whitney identified for inspection,

"The current plan is to begin pulling these engines from service after Labor Day, which will result in seven neo aircraft being removed from scheduled service," he said. 

 "This new issue is yet another frustrating and disappointing development," Christie added.

Indian defunct carrier Go First had accused Pratt & Whitney’s defective engines of driving it to the verge of bankruptcy and engine maker’s response to the crisis was a deliberate attempt to kill the airline.

Go First had made a quote that almost 178 out of the total 1,219 aircraft powered by P&W’s GTF engine were grounded in March 2023.

“The most affected region is India with 65 grounded aircraft out of 178 aircraft. Out of total 60 global customers, only 4 customers have grounded aircraft in excess of 25 per cent and 2 of them are Indian customers"

Go First said to have chosen P&W’s next-generation PurePower PW1127G-JM – also called the geared turbofan (GTF) engine – for its Airbus A320neo fleet over claims of it having a longer lifespan, greater fuel efficiency, being less noisy, more environmentally friendly and reduced maintenance costs.

Go First further claimed that P&W had also committed to repairing and reconditioning an engine in case it failed within the initial 6,000 hours or 4,200 take-off and landing cycles of normal operation.