What is Pratt & Whitney? The company Go First is blaming for bankruptcy

Engine maker Pratt & Whitney is at the centre of the Go First storm. The airline that filed for voluntary insolvency proceedings blamed the US engine-maker for its situation. Go First said that the non-supply of engines forced the airline to ground around half of its airplanes, leading to a cash crunch and revenue losses. 

Pratt & Whitney said that Go First has a lengthy history of missing its financial obligations to the engine maker. It also released a statement where it said that they are committed to the success of their airline customers and that they continue to prioritise delivery schedules for all the customers. “Pratt & Whitney is complying with the March 2023 arbitration ruling related to Go First. As this is now a matter of litigation, we will not comment further,” it had said.  

WHAT IS PRATT & WHITNEY?

The company goes back to nearly a century. The company, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company, was founded by Frederick B Rentschler in 1925. Rentschler was a pioneer of the air-cooled radial engine design, as per their website. This design enabled an “unprecedented” power-to-weight ratio that measures the performance of an engine by dividing the engine’s output by the weight or mass of the vehicle. 

Pratt & Whitney’s first engine was the R-1340 Wasp engine, which is still in use today, and is believed to have transformed military and commercial aviation. 

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In 1928, the company opened its Canadian division. In 1944, the company started its gas turbine and jet propulsion initiative and constructed a wind tunnel, laboratory and engineering centre to help US’ allies in World War II. In 1945, the company, propelled by the wartime requirements, produced more than 300,000 engines. 

With the wartime as a pivot point, Pratt & Whitney continued to focus on designing and innovating more powerful and agile engines. The engine-maker has more that 16,000 customers worldwide currently. It has a range of products on offer including commercial engines, helicopter engines, military engines, business and general aviation engines, auxiliary power units, and regional aviation engines with multiple variants in each of the categories.

WHAT IS THE PRATT & WHITNEY-GO FIRST CASE?

In 2011, Go First had placed an order for 72 narrow-body A320 neo aircraft, which was received in 2016. Pratt & Whitney is the exclusive engine supplier for the A320 neo aircraft fleet. The airline picked the engine-maker as it offered better fleet-management terms than its rival CFM International, and the engines were fuel efficient, quieter and required less service. 

However, the engines – GTF engines – were found to have problems with the fan blades, an oil seal and the combustion chamber lining. Pratt & Whitney had invested $10 billion to develop these engines. Now, with the glitches, several A320 neo planes were grounded in 2017. Go First and IndiGo had to ground scores of planes at one point as well as cancel flights.  

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Go First said that Pratt & Whitney agreed to compensate the airline for its engine support. The agreement ran through 2019 and the engine-maker provided unspecified compensation to the airline for the days when the planes were grounded. 

However, in 2020, the airline experienced ‘more severe’ engine failures. In 2022, financial disputes emerged between the two companies. 

In February this year, Pratt & Whitney proposed to supply replacement engines at a rate ‘four times lower than the failure rate’. A month later, Go First filed for emergency arbitration in Singapore. 

WAR OF WORDS

Pratt & Whitney said that its engines were not defective even if they did not perform as desired. It said Go First’s financial woes were of its own making, and they were to get $100 million from the airline. 

Go First said that the number of aircraft with faulty engines ballooned from 7 per cent of its fleet in December 2019 to 50 per cent in December 2022. It said these issues cost the airline $1.3 billion in lost revenue and added expenses. 

WHAT AIRBUS SAYS

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said that the engine maker has been struggling to support its fleet of passenger jets with enough spare parts and engines. He, however, declined to comment on the Go First case. 

Faury said that there are issues with the in-service support of the GTF engines that have led to temporary issues and grounding of planes. “This is something that we are very closely monitoring," Faury told reporters.

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