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DUBAI—While there are still a lot of aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1000G (GTF) engines parked, the OEM says it is seeing improvements in engine shop performance.
A “high proportion” of GTF in-shop turnaround times are now under 120 days, says Rick Deurloo, president of Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines, and he expects that to get down to 110 days. GTF shop visits had been as high as 160 days on average.
“It’s not our MRO capacity that’s our limited factor. It’s material going in to support the MRO that’s our challenge,” Deurloo says during a briefing here at Dubai Airshow.
Pratt has announced at least $400 million investments the last few years in its aftermarket network and expects to make more in coming months. Its GTF MRO network includes 21 engine shops, three of which are yet to open: the Christchurch Engine Center in New Zealand, Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Japan and Sanad in the UAE.
Its aftermarket is in a period of transition as it supports its legacy fleet and ramps up to service the growing GTF fleet, which is “going to be twice as big as any of our legacy products in our history,” Deurloo says.
Mature commercial engines still compromise the majority—9,500—of Pratt & Whitney’s in-service fleet of about 15,800 engines, but the GTF family that currently numbers about 6,300 will surpass that in the near future.
When factoring in those engines delivered and on order, there will be some 13,000 GTF engines in the market, Deurloo says. “The V2500 topped out at 7,000,” he notes, meaning what took the V2500 about 30 years to achieve the GTF is doing in 10 years, due to its much higher ramp-up rate.
Pratt has announced about 1,500 orders so far this year, and “our book-to-bill is always greater than one,” Deurloo adds.
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