New Delhi: Indian aviation authorities have warned Pratt & Whitney (PW) that new Airbus A320 Neos being delivered to IndiGo and GoAir from next month will not be accepted unless they come with updated engines as snags continue to plague PW’s yet-to-be-upgraded engines for the Neos.
Sources say Pratt in recent meetings had told the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that recent instances of in-flight shutdowns and engine failures have been due to problems with main gear box and low pressure turbine.
“PW told us that fix to both these two problems has been found. A software update is being provided to reduce or eliminate these problems and that they will start giving the updated engines to A320/321 Neos which will be delivered to IndiGo and GoAir from next March. When told that was too distant a date to be acceptable, they pushed it forward to January 2020. However, DGCA chief Arun Kumar put his foot down and said such a long wait was not acceptable. Now PW will start delivering new Neos to IndiGo and GoAir with the updated engines from next month,” said a highly placed official.
PW did not comment on this development.
Kumar is learnt to have warned PW, IndiGo and GoAir that “DGCA will not hesitate to take the severest action (which means grounding) to ensure passenger safety should the situation so warrant.” IndiGo is the world’s largest customer for the A320 Neo family of planes. It has ordered 430 of these, with 280 being A320 Neos and 150 A321 Neos. “We had 87 A320 Neos and 5 A321 Neos as on July 20, 2019,” an IndiGo spokesperson said. The mega budget airline is yet to get over 330 Neos from those orders. GoAir has ordered 144 A320 Neos and has got about 35 of them so far.
19/08/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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Sources say Pratt in recent meetings had told the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that recent instances of in-flight shutdowns and engine failures have been due to problems with main gear box and low pressure turbine.
“PW told us that fix to both these two problems has been found. A software update is being provided to reduce or eliminate these problems and that they will start giving the updated engines to A320/321 Neos which will be delivered to IndiGo and GoAir from next March. When told that was too distant a date to be acceptable, they pushed it forward to January 2020. However, DGCA chief Arun Kumar put his foot down and said such a long wait was not acceptable. Now PW will start delivering new Neos to IndiGo and GoAir with the updated engines from next month,” said a highly placed official.
PW did not comment on this development.
Kumar is learnt to have warned PW, IndiGo and GoAir that “DGCA will not hesitate to take the severest action (which means grounding) to ensure passenger safety should the situation so warrant.” IndiGo is the world’s largest customer for the A320 Neo family of planes. It has ordered 430 of these, with 280 being A320 Neos and 150 A321 Neos. “We had 87 A320 Neos and 5 A321 Neos as on July 20, 2019,” an IndiGo spokesperson said. The mega budget airline is yet to get over 330 Neos from those orders. GoAir has ordered 144 A320 Neos and has got about 35 of them so far.
19/08/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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