By Alwyn Scott
MIDDLETOWN, Conn., June 7 (Reuters) - The head of aircraft
engine maker Pratt & Whitney countered criticism on Tuesday from
Qatar Airways and Lufthansa about Pratt's new Geared Turbofan
engine, saying early teething issues that have delayed delivery
of some Airbus AIR.PA planes have been fixed.
"I'm not going to debate the CEO of Lufthansa or the CEO of
Qatar. I'm just going to state the facts to you as I know them,"
Bob Leduc, president of Pratt & Whitney, said at a media event
in Connecticut.
The chief executive of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, said
last week he had canceled one Pratt-powered A320neo, part of a
large Airbus order, over concern that the engine required extra
time to start under certain conditions.
Some A320s are at Airbus' factory in Toulouse, France,
awaiting engines, and Lufthansa LHAG.DE is not flying the
plane into some airports because of the slow start issue.
Pratt, a unit of United Technologies Corp (NYSE:UTX) UTX.N , is one of
the world's biggest aircraft engine makers, along with General
Electric Co GE.N and Britain's Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc
RR.L .
Leduc ticked off Pratt's numbers: three airlines flying
seven A320s with the engine, known as the PW1100G, which is
demonstrating a 16 percent cut in fuel burn and 75 percent noise
reduction compared with prior engines. In more than 2,000
takeoffs and landings so far, it has shown no major in-flight or
takeoff issues, Leduc said, and it has dispatch reliability of
99.75 percent, meaning it was able to leave the gate on time.
"This has been a phenomenal entry into service" second only
to the Boeing (NYSE:BA) BA.N 777 in 1995, he said.
The GTF's performance is critical as Pratt speeds up
production from about 200 engines this year to 1,200 annually by
the end of the decade, working through a backlog of 7,100 firm
orders and commitments, enough to keep its factories running for
eight years and generate $750 billion in revenue over 25 years.
The GTF engine is being used on new commercial jetliners
from Airbus, Brazil's Embraer SA EMBR3.SA , Canada's Bombardier
Inc, Japan's Mitsubishi and Russia's Irkut.
To ensure the ramp-up goes smoothly, Pratt is buttoning down
its network of 1,600 suppliers, which provide about 80 percent
of the engine's content. Pratt is holding them to such a high
standard that many do not quite measure up.
"About 44 percent of that (1,600) is what we would consider
to be underperforming," said Gregory Hayes, chief executive of
United Technologies Corp. "That is, they don't deliver at 95
percent on time and they don't deliver with (quality of) 500
parts per million or better."
If a supplier is not meeting standard, Pratt will send
engineers to help fix the problem, part of a multibillion-dollar
investment in the new engine.
The company is about halfway through investing $1.3 billion
in new facilities. At a sparkling white plant here, workers were
assembling five engines on Tuesday.
Each 7,000-pound (3,175 kg) machine hung in a cradle from an
overhead track, allowing workers to maneuver them for easier
assembly, a trick learned from auto plants.
Two engines stood near the door, wrapped in white plastic,
ready to ship to Airbus. A similar line exists in West Palm
Beach, Florida, part of Pratt's strategy of having no single
point of failure on its lines.
The company also has doubled up on suppliers, trying to find
second or third sources for parts to ensure it will always have
what it needs on time, Leduc said.
Leduc said Pratt is looking more deeply into its supply
chain. It is shifting to monitoring suppliers 100 weeks ahead of
when parts are due to arrive, up from 20 weeks in January.
If suppliers are not ready "and you're six weeks out, you're
dead in the water," he said.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)