🔒Pratt & Whitney announces major investment in Columbus, Georgia, engine plant

Pratt & Whitney announced Tuesday it’s investing $200 million to expand manufacturing capabilities at its facility in Columbus, Georgia. The East Hartford-based jet engine maker, owned by RTX, says the investment will support both its military and commercial programs. The funding will add new equipment, and is expected to increase output of engine parts by 30% once the expansion comes online in 2028. The investment is the second in recent months at the Columbus site. Pratt has just finished a $70 million, 81,000-square-foot expansion of maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities for its GTF engine at the campus. The company says since 2008, it has invested a total of more than $1 billion in the Georgia facility. “This latest investment will increase output of critical parts for our growing military and commercial engine programs and underscores our ongoing commitment to ramp industrial capacity to support our customers," said Pratt & Whitney President Shane Eddy. Pratt emphasized that its Connecticut operations are not affected by the Georgia investment. "No Connecticut jobs will be impacted by Pratt & Whitney's facility expansion in Columbus, Georgia, where the business has been operating for more than four decades. The work performed in Columbus is not performed in Connecticut," the company said in a statement emailed to the Hartford Business Journal. Job security at Pratt’s Connecticut facilities was a key issue during a strike in May last year. More than 3,000 machinists walked off the job in a strike organized by IAM Locals 700 and 1746 at the company’s East Hartford and Middletown manufacturing plants, the first such work stoppage in more than 20 years. At the time, union leaders said their key demands include assurances on job security, because of concerns that Pratt may move production work on key engine programs out of state. The negotiations prompted Pratt to post a web page detailing its recent investments in Connecticut and outlining its commitment to the state in general terms. The web page has since been taken down.