GTF’s troubled history hurting future orders

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By Scott Hamilton and Bjorn Fehrm

May 8, 2023, © Leeham News: India’s GoFirst Airlines filed for bankruptcy last week. The carrier pointed to around 29 of its 50 Pratt & Whitney Geared TurboFan-powered Airbus A320neos being grounded as the reason.

The aircraft have been grounded for months. Despite negotiations with PW and a favorable arbitration ruling, GoFirst says PW failed to provide replacement engines. As a result, GoFirst paid about $196m in lease rates for the grounded aircraft, without being able to fly them for revenue.

Lufthansa Group last week complained that a third of its Swiss Airbus A220 fleet, also powered by the GTF, are likewise grounded with technical issues. As LNA previously reported, Air Baltic, Egyptair and Air Senegal also have A220s grounded. Iraqi Airlines has some A220s that are grounded. And now there's news that Embraer E195-E2s at KLM's regional airline are also grounded due to GTF issues.

India’s Indigo Airlines also has a large number of A320neos grounded with GTF problems. About 11% of the nearly 3,000 A320neos in service are grounded or fly one a week, an Aviation Week analysis revealed.

PW’s reputation was already badly damaged before the GoFirst bankruptcy. However, an LNA analysis shows that forward orders for engines on the A320neo already were suffering.

Summary

  • CFM’s LEAP has a consistently larger market share, boosted by exclusivity on Boeing 737 MAX.
  • Initially PW won more orders for A321neo; CFM has overtaken in the order backlog.
  • Including A220 (exclusive GTF power) and MAX, plus neo split, CFM’s in-service market share is 66% to 34%.
  • But going forward, CFM has 60% of the backlog across all types to PW’s 19%--with 22% of the A320neo family orders undecided on engines.

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