Global aircraft manufacturer Airbus chief executive officer Tom Enders on Friday termed the recent troubles with the Pratt and Whitney engines used in its A320 neo aircraft as “unfortunate” but said it would not impact its aircraft deliveries.
Two incidents of fire were recently reported in A320 neo aircraft using the engine – one with GoAir and the other with IndiGo in the last two months. The new engine has also posed challenges related to start-up issues and erroneous technical messages to the pilot in the recent past.
“I have not heard from any airline which is dissatisfied with the way we are dealing with the situation with respect to any operational disruptions,” Mr. Enders said, adding the plane manufacturer is set to deliver one aircraft per week, on an average, in the next 10 years in India.
“The incidents are unfortunate. The engines have some teething problems, some maturity problems. This is something on which we are working very closely with the airline customers, with the engine maker (Pratt and Whitney) of course, and the authorities, and it is going very smooth. I don’t see this impacting our deliveries in India,” Mr. Enders said here at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Airbus India Training Centre.
The Airbus chief said it had plans to increase helicopter footprint in commercial and military areas in India. Although Mr. Enders said it had no plans to set up final assembly lines for aircraft in India, he hinted at a possible assembly line for helicopters. “The helicopter market in India is very important for us. It’s a great place to sell, manufacture and assemble helicopters. Our plans to sell Airbus helicopters (in India) are no less ambitious than the commercial aircraft,” Mr. Enders said during a press interaction.
The Airbus India Training Centre, which will become operational by end-2018 near Delhi’s international airport, will be Airbus’s first pilot training facility in Asia. The facility will have two A320 full-flight simulators initially which will be gradually increased to six simulators. The training centre can initially train more than 800 pilots and 200 maintenance engineers annually. The centre can be used by Airbus operators across the globe.
According to Airbus, 24,000 new pilots and maintenance engineers will be required to cater to the rising air traffic growth in India by 2035. Vistara became Airbus’ first customer for providing A320 flight training services. It signed a five-year contract with Vistara here on Friday that will begin from end-2018 when the Centre will become operational. The training package includes full-flight simulation, aircraft procedure training, and computer-based classroom training, among others.
