EAST HARTFORD, June 17, 2019 – Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), today announced it has surpassed 17,500 engine deliveries, including auxiliary power units (APUs), to power aircraft for Airbus and its partners, subsidiaries and joint venture companies. The milestone comes as a result of the production ramp up in Pratt & Whitney GTF™ engine deliveries to support the Airbus A320neo and A220 programs.
“Half a century of powering Airbus aircraft is a source of pride and a highlight of our own company’s 94-year history,” said Pratt & Whitney President Bob Leduc. “Since the early 1970s, our engines have powered nearly every Airbus commercial aircraft introduced into service. When Airbus Industries came on the scene with the A300 -- the world’s first twin-engine wide-body aircraft -- it was clear that a new generation of aircraft was literally taking off. This is where Pratt & Whitney forged its original collaboration with the JT9D engine.”
Currently the focus is on the growing single-aisle market, where Pratt & Whitney and Airbus are working together on the A320neo (new engine option) aircraft family. However, the cooperation on this aircraft’s predecessor, the A320 goes back to the mid-80s through the Pratt & Whitney partnership with International Aero Engines (IAE) and the launch of the V2500 engine. Since then Pratt & Whitney and its collaborators have delivered more than 7,000 of these engines to Airbus. The V2500 has achieved more than 100 million aircraft flight hours, and counting, on the single-aisle aircraft.
Other Pratt & Whitney products have also played a key role across Airbus’ portfolio. “Our auxiliary power units (APUs) serve both the A320 family of aircraft and the A380. Airbus’ twin-engine H135 helicopter and the H175 super medium-sized rotorcraft enjoy tremendous market success powered by our PW200 and PT6C engines respectively and our PW100 engines also power the ATR 42 and ATR 72 aircraft,” Leduc said.
The collaboration with Airbus has been so successful it seemed only natural that – when the world needed an aircraft with reduced emissions and noise, and improved fuel burn efficiency – the two companies would be the go-to innovators again with the launch of the GTF engine on the A320neo platform.
Since entering passenger service in 2016, GTF engines have compiled more than 2.5 million engine revenue hours and demonstrated ability to reduce fuel burn by 16 to 20 percent, saving customers 140 million gallons of fuel to date. The improved fuel efficiency allows operators the ability to extend routes and make point-to-point destinations more available to the flying public. The GTF engine’s architecture also allows for further evolution and performance enhancements for the Airbus A320neo family of aircraft and future platforms.
“Our customers are very pleased with the fuel burn savings and the overall economic performance and benefits our engines provide,” said Tom Pelland, senior vice president, Commercial Engines Programs at Pratt & Whitney. “Firm believers in the GTF include Delta, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, JetBlue, Spirit, Swiss, Vietnam Airlines, Wizz Air, airBaltic, China Southern and many others. The GTF fleet continues to grow with plans to increase production of these engines in 2019 over last year’s numbers, and we will continue to grow our backlog with additional order announcements during the 2019 Paris Air Show.”
Leduc added, “The GTF engine, with the architecture of the future, along with Airbus’ innovative airframe designs, will drive the next generation of efficient, sustainable air travel. We see a tremendous runway for further efficiency gains and, continuing to work closely with the great people of Airbus, we look forward to meeting operators’ demand for lower operating costs and reduced emissions.”