None of the Airbus A320neo planes in the Singapore Airlines group with Pratt & Whitney engines are currently grounded over a lack of spares, Leslie Thng, CEO of Scoot, the airline’s low-cost subsidiary, said on Wednesday. The engines have been under scrutiny since Go Airlines (India) Ltd filed for bankruptcy protection this month, blaming “faulty” Pratt engines for the grounding of about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. Pratt, part of Raytheon Technologies says the claims are without evidence and divert attention from the airline’s financial woes.
Scoot has 15 A320neo family planes in its fleet, while premium brand Singapore Airlines instead operates the rival Boeing Co 737 family. “We are expecting to take more deliveries in coming years,” Thng said of the Airbus narrowbody planes. His comments were in response to questions at a post-results briefing with analysts and media after Singapore Airlines reported on Tuesday its first annual profit in four years and said the current year was off to a strong start.
India’s IndiGo, Germany’s Lufthansa and Air New Zealand have said some of their aircraft have been grounded over issues with Pratt GTF engines at a time when spares are in short supply. Prior to the Go Airlines bankruptcy, about 12% of the A320neo family planes globally with Pratt GTF engines were inactive, compared to just 4% for those with rival engines made by CFM International, aviation consultancy IBA said this month. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said in February that the GTF engines’ reliability has not been up to expectations and that the company was working to fix problems.