Key insights
- ITA Airways is nearing a decision on a lawsuit against RTX's Pratt & Whitney over engine faults grounding nearly 20% of its fleet. The airline estimates damages at 150 million euros and finds current settlement offers insufficient. This issue, affecting hundreds of A320neo aircraft globally due to manufacturing problems and repair backlogs, highlights ongoing supply chain pressures in the aerospace sector. While primarily impacting ITA Airways and RTX, the widespread grounding of A320neos could signal broader operational challenges and potential cost increases for airlines
By Allison Lampert
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 7 (Reuters) - Italy’s ITA Airways will decide within the next eight weeks whether to sue aerospace supplier RTX’s Pratt & Whitney due to engine problems that have grounded almost 20% of its fleet of 80 aircraft, the carrier’s CEO said on Sunday.
Hundreds of A320neo planes, the latest version of the Airbus single-aisle jets, have been grounded globally.
This has been partly due to long waiting times for engine inspections and repairs, and after a manufacturing problem at Pratt & Whitney put pressure on the output of the fuel-efficient GTF engines in Airbus planes.
“It’s imminent,” Joerg Eberhart, CEO of ITA Airways, said on the sidelines of a global gathering of top airline executives in Rio de Janeiro. “We will have to decide within the next six to eight weeks.”
RTX did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The U.S.-based industrial giant has previously said Pratt is taking various steps to improve repairs after disclosing in 2023 a new GTF problem involving contaminated powder metal.
“So far, we are quantifying the damage we are facing, which is about 150 million euros," Eberhart said. "We are in talks with Pratt, and what they proposed so far is not sufficient to cover our damage.”
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