Airbus Warns of a New Problem With a Pratt & Whitney Engine
February 09 2018 - 4:00PM
Dow Jones News
By Robert Wall
LONDON -- European plane maker Airbus SE on Friday warned of new
problems with the Pratt & Whitney engines on its A320neo
planes, leading European air safety officials to issue emergency
restrictions.
The move will force airlines operating the A320neo with affected
engines to ground some of their planes.
The European Aviation Safety Agency Friday said it was aware of
"several occurrences of engine in-flight shutdown" and other
in-service events with the engine on the A320neo, Airbus's
best-selling plane. It ordered flight restrictions on planes
powered by those engines.
The problem with a core part of the engine is the latest in a
string of setbacks that Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United
Technologies Corp., has suffered with its geared turbofan engines.
Airbus last year was stuck with planes it had built but was unable
to ship to airlines because they were awaiting engines from
Pratt.
Since the A320neo entered service little more than 2 years ago,
Pratt also has had to replace engines at a higher than expected
pace because of component failures. Fixing all the problems has
taken longer than expected, hobbling airline operations and
creating a financial headwind for United Technologies.
Airbus said it was supporting Pratt & Whitney to identify
the cause of the latest problem. Pratt & Whitney said Friday
that "this issue is isolated to a limited subpopulation of engines"
and airlines with potentially affected engines had been
notified.
Airbus is ramping up production of multiple plane types, but
repeatedly has encountered delays because of supplier problems.
Airbus said it was unclear what the impact from the latest
supplier problem would be on plane deliveries this year. The
European plane maker next week is due to give formal targets for
plane deliveries this year, though it has indicated it hoped to
ship close to 800 aircraft of all types, above the 718 shipped last
year. Airbus last year fell short, though, on A320neo deliveries
because of engine supply problems.
Airbus said 113 A320neo planes, spread over 18 airlines, feature
the Pratt engine but not all those engines are affected by the part
problem. The extent of the required groundings is still
unclear.
A joint venture of General Electric Co. and France's Safran SA
offer a rival engine, which also has suffered setbacks.
United Technologies shares dropped on the news Friday, trading
down 2% to $125.00 in midafternoon after being above $128 earlier
in the day.
--Doug Cameron and Thomas Gryta contributed to this article.
Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 09, 2018 15:45 ET (20:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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