Pratt & Whitney’s ability to keep up with spare parts demand and tailor overhaul workscopes are seen as keys to managing PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) groundings and potentially reduce the disruptions customers are seeing, a top executive of parent company RTX said.
“The MRO network is really going to be paced by the material that we can get to flow into that network to support the number of shop visits,” RTX CFO Neil Mitchill said at a Feb. 13. Cowen investor event.
Pratt expects the number of grounded A320neos to peak by April 1 as engine removals to check parts with contaminated powder metal (PM) continue to rise. With wing-to-wing turnaround times at around 300 days and the removals having started back in September 2023, engines are not flowing steadily back to the fleet yet.
The company’s multi-pronged strategy to limit customers’ pain includes adding shop capacity. Pratt now has 16 global shops that can do the work, Mitchill said, up from 11 a year ago. It is also producing enough new PM-affected parts to keep engines moving through shops, he added.
The challenge will be ensuring Pratt has enough other parts needed to complete the overhauls—hundreds of which are taking place much earlier than originally planned to address the contaminated PM risks.
“We’re working ... to make sure that we can scope the work properly for the engines that are coming into the shop to match the nature and the extent of that work we have to do with the remaining duration for other elements of the engine that may come in later on in their life cycle,” Mitchill said.
“For example, we may have an engine that’s flying in a fairly benign environment, and we’re able to go in and do a very targeted repair that takes less than your normal MRO turnaround time to put in an inspected part rather than a new part, shorten that turnaround time, get that part back out,” he continued. “We’ll see that engine again, but that will be on a regularly scheduled basis. So, we’re working to optimize the work scopes in the shops to make sure that we can counter any issues that we may encounter on the material side.”
Pratt originally said peak groundings would total about 650 aircraft. But a combination of factors, including airlines carefully managing usable engines to maximize the number of aircraft in service, led the company to revise the peak projection downward.
Many affected airlines are struggling to cut capacity to match expected fleet availability. The running daily average of groundings is still expected to be about 350 through the end of 2026. Pratt and its partners are working to cut into turnaround times—which include up to 150 days for an available overhaul shop spot—to reduce total groundings.
“We’re going to have these engines sitting in the parking lot [awaiting induction]. We already had some sitting in the parking lot before the powdered metal issue” as engines awaited durability-related repairs, Mitchill said. “The burn-down is going to come as the material begins to flow into the MRO network and we’re able to conduct all these overhauls.”
Mitchill explained that, “right now, we would say we’re still pretty balanced when we look at the flow of material with the flow of engines. But trust me, we’re doing everything we can to improve that turnaround time, bring that time in the parking lot and in the shop down over the next 6-12 months.”
Apart from the PW1000G issues, Pratt expects steady MRO activity in the year ahead. Mitchill said the company is projecting a 3-4% increase in mature engine shop visits, led by V2500s, which he expects to account for about 800 visits. A slight rise in PW4000 overhauls will likely be offset by a similar decline in PW2000 work, he added.
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