Airbus Picks Pratt’s Geared Turbofan Engine First on A320Neo
Airbus SAS picked Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan as the first engine for its A320neo jet, in a vote of confidence for a power plant that has yet to fly commercially.
Since announcing plans for the upgraded A320 single-aisle aircraft, Toulouse, France-based Airbus has won orders from carriers including Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA) and IndiGo of India. Pratt has secured three customers for the A320neo, which also comes with the Leap-X variant by the CFM International joint venture run by General Electric Co. (GE) and Safran SA (SAF) of France.
“This is a big deal for Pratt,” said Nick Cunningham, an aerospace analyst at London-based Agency Partners. “It leaves CFM in some difficulty, and it also raises the question about what Boeing does.”
Airbus announced yesterday that it will accelerate introduction of the A320neo by six months, with entry into service now slated for the end of 2015. Boeing Co. (BA), which competes in the single-aisle market with its 737 jet, has said it will decide by June whether to build an all-new jet rather than follow Airbus’s route of adding new engines to an existing frame. Existing 737 models, the world’s most widely flown jet, only come with CFM engines.
Leap-X Engine
Airbus had said it would use whatever engine was ordered first for the A320neo and the Leap-X engine’s service target date remains 2016 for this application, said Jamie Jewell, a CFM spokeswoman. Having its engine chosen for the first jet doesn’t assure it will capture most of the market in the long run, she said. GE now has more orders for its GenX engine on the Boeing 787, even though Rolls-Royce Group Plc was chosen for the first engine, for example, Jewell said.
“We’re not worried about this,” Jewell said. “If nothing else, it gives us time to fine-tune Leap-X. This is a long-term process. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Airbus has collected about 300 commitments for the plane since beginning marketing at the end of last year. The jet promises higher fuel efficiency because of the new engines.
Pratt & Whitney has a version of its geared turbofan engine available on Bombardier Inc.’s CSeries aircraft, which has a seat range of 100 to 149, smaller than the A320neo, with an introduction date of 2013. A version of CFM’s Leap-X is slated for launch on Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China’s C919 aircraft in 2014.
‘Good Opening’
Airbus’s decision to lead with Pratt was “market driven,” said Stefan Schaffrath, a company spokesman. A320neo customers that picked Pratt’s geared turbofan include Lufthansa, which ordered 30 planes, Indigo, which has ordered 150 A320neos, and International Lease Finance Corp.
“We’ve been blessed with a good opening,” Bob Saia, who runs the geared turbofan program for Pratt & Whitney, said in a telephone interview. “In our case, we’re ready, we’re anxious to be the first. The other key benefit of being first is that if you get a six- to nine-month jump start on the competition, it can open up the market.”
ILFC plans to take 100 A320neos and has said that 60 of those will be powered by Pratt’s geared turbofan. The engines for the other 40 haven’t yet been chosen.
The A320neo’s two other customers, Brazil’s Tam and Richard Branson’s Virgin America, have yet to specify an engine choice. Airbus’s classic A320 series of aircraft offer a choice of CFM 56 engines or V2500 engines built by International Aero Engines, a joint venture that includes Pratt, Rolls-Royce Plc, MTU of Germany, and several Japanese companies.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Rothman in Paris at aerothman@bloomberg.net; Rachel Layne in Boston at rlayne@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net
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