Pratt and Whitney to supply engines to IndiGo and GoAir by Sep-end

Pratt and Whitney has assured country's aviation regulator that will provide engine replacements for ten grounded A320neo aircraft of IndiGo and GoAir by September-end.
 
This was conveyed by Pratt and Whitney when they were called in by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently. The DGCA asked the Pratt and Whitney officials to treat India as a priority market from where they are getting good business.
 
Sources said they could understand if one or two aircraft are grounded but here the number is around 10 and it is a serious issue. IndiGo, at present, has eight and GoAir two A320neos grounded.
 
"They have told us that they will treat these as priority cases. They have assured by September they would be able to supply new engines to these grounded aircraft," a senior official said. "They have assured us that they will provide about 40% of the new engines to Indian carriers. We wanted them to do that because a large number of aircraft are grounded," the official said.
 
The DGCA had in April ordered a detailed inspection of the Airbus 320 neo planes of IndiGo and GoAir that are equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines. The direction came after the DGCA took serious note of incidents where some IndiGo and GoAir flights had to make emergency landings due to engine issues.
 
In July while talking about Quarter-1 results, IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh had acknowledged the problem with the engines.
 
“Regrettably, there have been days when we have had to ground as many as nine A320 neo planes due to lack of spare engines. While we do receive certain compensation from Pratt & Whitney for these groundings, the operational disruptions are quite challenging and we are not happy with that situation,” Ghosh had then said.
 
Rescheduling of services due to the grounding of planes appeared to have an effect on IndiGo's market share with figures showing a fall in July, the lowest for any month for the airline this year. The DGCA figures showed that IndiGo could grab only 38.7% of the market share. This is the lowest percentage for IndiGo for any month this year.