East Hartford jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney has been selected by a low-cost Chilean airline to provide its geared turbofan (GTF) engine to power 85 Airbus A320neo family aircraft.
Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Farmington conglomerate United Technologies Corp. (UTC), on Tuesday said it will also provide JetSMART with engine maintenance under a 12-year service agreement.
The price of the order was not disclosed. Pratt did, however, say the first aircraft will be delivered in the third quarter of 2019.
Since its debut in early 2016, Pratt says the GTF engine has lowered fuel burn by 16 percent, dropped the noise footprint by 75 percent and reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by 50 percent vs. the regulatory standard.Â
“The efficiency gained with the A320neo will allow us to further reduce our cost and provide our customers with lower fares across South America,” said JetSMART CEO Estuardo Ortiz.
Tuesday’s order announcement comes a day after IndiGo, India’s largest airline, dropped Pratt’s engines in favor of others manufactured by the General Electric-Safran joint venture CFM International.
The Delhi-based low-cost carrier on Monday finalized a $20 billion order for CFM’s 1LEAP-1A, which will be used to power roughly 280 A320neo and A321neo airliners currently on order from European planemaker Airbus.
In Dec. 2017, IndiGo placed a $50 billion order for 430 A320-class jets from Airbus and originally planned to fit the first 150 with Pratt’s PW1000G geared turbofan engine. A series of mid-air glitches, however, prompted the airline to start considering alternatives as early as January.
A report by the Journal Inquirer contributed to this story
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