The fleet of Latvian national airline “airBaltic” also has planes equipped with “Pratt & Whitney” engines. These engines often break down and need to be repaired. Because of this, flights are often delayed or even cancelled.
As Martins Gauss, chairman of the board of airBaltic, stated in an interview with “Neatkarīgai” in February of this year, it is not a big deal if one of the engines goes out of order during the flight – the flight can be continued even with one engine.
At least for the time being, the problems with the Pratt & Whitney engines have not caused concern in the person of the main shareholder of airBaltic, the Ministry of Transport.
Meanwhile, other airlines around the world have already expressed their outrage anonymously.
Will have to check the 1200 engine
Pratt & Whitney announced on July 25 that 1,200 of the more than 3,000 engines produced for the Airbus A320neo twin-engine passenger jet between 2015 and 2021 will have to be removed from the planes and inspected for microcracks that could indicate metal fatigue in turbine discs. 200 engines should be tested by mid-September, and the rest within the next year. As Reuters notes, for this reason, airline managers will have to keep planes on the ground and reduce the number of flights when faced with a tight summer flight schedule.
Unpleasant surprise
Although airlines rarely comment publicly on such matters, several top foreign aviation executives have privately said they were shocked, with one, who asked not to be named, calling it an “unpleasant surprise”. Air carriers are already facing a shortage of pilots, air traffic controllers and new aircraft, making it difficult for them to increase the number of flights. Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Hungary’s Wizz Air are the largest customers to have received the engines under test, according to aviation data aggregator Cirium. Shares immediately fall by 10%
Shares of Pratt & Whitney’s parent RTX fell 10% after news of engine problems emerged. “RTX” CEO Greg Hayes admitted in an interview with “Reuters” that airlines are frustrated by the many problems with engines over the past seven years. At first he lies, but then he admits that there are technical problems
The information was revealed to the public a few weeks after RTX told an audience at the Paris Air Show that the current problems were mainly limited to supply chain issues rather than technical problems. But on Tuesday, the company said it had started addressing the metal issue 10 days ago. RTX said it is lowering its 2023 cash flow forecast by $500 million to $4.3 billion due to the review. Airbus ( AIR.PA ) said there were no safety concerns or an impact on current deliveries. However, the company’s share price fell by 2.5%. Replacing the discs requires removing the engine, disassembling and reassembling it – this process can take three months. India’s low-cost airline Go First, which plunged into financial crisis earlier this year, blamed faulty Pratt & Whitney engines – with around half of its 54 Airbus A320neos being damaged. But “Pratt & Whitney” claimed that this was unfounded and that such statements arose from the financial problems of the Indian company itself.
Gauss praises Pratt & Whitney engines as very modern
“Neatkasirīga” got acquainted with the description of the “Pratt & Whitney” engine used in the new airplanes of the Latvian national airline “airBaltic” on the Internet. The accident of February 12, 2020 on the “airBaltic” flight from Riga to Malaga has been mentioned. An engine failure occurred in the “A220-300” aircraft. This engine just shut down. Doesn’t this cause concern that Pratt & Whitney engines in airBaltic planes may not be safe?
“airBaltic” executive director and chairman of the board, Martins Gauss, in an interview with “Neatkarīgai” in February of this year, admitted that accidents in the aviation industry unfortunately do happen. “Our aircraft are equipped with two types of engines. One of them is the Pratt & Whitney engine, which is a more modern engine and is used in more modern aircraft. As a more advanced engine, it is equipped with internal safety systems. This system sends a signal to the pilot. In case of problems, a chain reaction occurs and gradually this engine is shut down. This does not cause problems, because with one engine it is possible to complete the trip and arrive at the required destination. If the engine did not turn off automatically, the pilot would have to do it manually,” said M. Gauss. Read the interview here.
According to M. Gaus, “it’s nothing crazy if one of the engines of the plane breaks in the air”.
The board of the company deals with the management of the company and the business, but it also has a council whose task is, among other things, to monitor the board of the company and analyze its decisions. Andris Liepiņš, Klāvs Vasks and Kaspars Ozoliņš were elected as members of the company council at the shareholders’ meeting of “airBaltic” on June 14. The “Independent” asked them the question: “Do the members of the board of “airBaltic” believe that the engines produced by “Pratt & Whitney” are safe, and are they not worried by the reports in the media about the problems that have arisen with the engines produced by this company?” We are waiting for answers.
2023-08-02 02:15:27
#AirBaltics #favorite #Pratt #Whitney #aircraft #engines #problem
