East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney’s multi-national partnership, International Aero Engines, has landed a huge engine order from Singapore-based Tiger Airways worth an estimated $1.3 billion overall, IAE officials announced.
Under terms of the contract, Tiger Airways ordered up to 100 IAE-built V2500 engines to power 50 Airbus A320-series aircraft, according to an announcement from IAE president and chief executive officer Jon Beatty. The deal also includes a maintenance agreement with IAE, Beatty said.
The contract includes 30 firm aircraft orders with options for an additional 20 and, if all options are exercised, “the combined engine and aftermarket value to IAE is in excess of $1.3 billion,” he said.
“In less than three years, Tiger Airways has become one of Asia’s leading low-cost carriers, and has pursued an aggressive growth plan which IAE has been delighted to support through the in-service performance of the V2500,” Beatty said. “A repeat order such as this shows the confidence our customers have in our current, market-leading engine,” he said, as well as furthering IAE’s “SelectOne” maintenance offering.
Just a year ago Tiger signed a $300 million maintenance agreement with IAE.
Reliability
Also in the statement, Tiger Airways CEO Tony Davis said his airline has found that IAE’s engines and service program helps his company to operate “in a highly competitive environment,” adding the engines, already on Tiger’s existing A320 fleet, have exhibited “in-service reliability and superior fuel efficiency.”
The 22,000-33,000 pounds of thrust V2500-A5 is available in seven different versions to power the Airbus A319, A320, and A321 family of aircraft as well as the A319 corporate jet.
The latest deal brings IAE’s orders for the year to well over $4 billion. Altogether, IAE logged contracts worth nearly $3 billion during the course of the Paris Air Show in June. All of the orders involved engines for Airbus Industry’s A320, twin-engine aircraft.
Pratt and Britain’s Rolls Royce each have a 33.5 percent interest in the IAE partnership. The rest of the partnership is divided between Japan’s Aero Engines Corp. and Germany’s MTU Aero Engines.