P&W engines' issue to have 'minimal' impact on Indigo's fleet: DGCA

Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday said that material anomalies in specific Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines will have “minimal” impact on IndiGo's fleet as only two engines of the airline will be required to be removed for inspection. 

IndiGo is the largest customer of the A320 planes and the aircraft are powered by P&W engines.

Grounded carrier Go First's A320 neo fleet also utilised P&W engines.

DGCA said 11 engines were currently non-operational out of the 13 engines that were affected by the anomalies.

Queries sent to P&W on this issue did not elicit a response until the time this report went to press.

"Subsequent to the announcement made by P&W regarding material anomalies on the P&W1100G engines worldwide, affecting approximately 200 engines, P&W has now issued the Service Instructions (SI) enlisting the serial numbers of the engine series which are required to be removed for performing Angle Ultrasonic Scan Inspection (AUSI) during the shop visit and accordingly are required to be removed before September 15," DGCA said.

This announcement implies that Indian carriers will not face any significant impact on their capacity with this development. 

Last month, engine manufacturer P&W revealed that a “rare condition” in powder metal used to manufacture certain engine parts would require “accelerated” fleet inspection.

According to media reports, this would need the company to inspect over 1,200 engines globally in the next nine to 12 months.

This includes about 200 “accelerated removals” from the jet fleet containing P&W1100G-JM engines which will be needed by mid-September this year, the company had said.

It added that there was no impact on engines that are in the production phase. 

On May 3, Go First suspended its flights and filed an insolvency application.

It blamed P&W for its cash crunch, stating that about half of its 54 aircraft were grounded on May 3 due to the delay in the supply of engines. 

About 10.2 per cent of IndiGo's total 323 aircraft fleet is currently grounded, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

All 33 grounded planes of IndiGo are powered by P&W engines, Business Standard reported last month. 

IndiGo, the country's largest carrier by market share, has 164 P&W-powered planes in its fleet.

The company, in May, had asked P&W to supply it with engines to bring its grounded planes back to service. 

As many as 36 of the 163 P&W-powered planes of IndiGo were grounded on May 3, as per aviation analytics firm Cirium data.