New Delhi: Pratt & Whitney has grounded a third of its Airbus A220 fleet in Zurich due to engine issues, days after Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa accused India’s Wadia Group-owned GoFirst of supplying “faulty engines”. temporarily grounded.
Lufthansa temporarily grounds a third of its Airbus A220 fleet in Zurich due to issues with Pratt & Whitney engines pic.twitter.com/uI4TX1flyi
– ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2023
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said in a statement that elements were missing in their supply chains, and companies needed to rebuild their production facilities.
India’s third-largest airline, which filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, said it had to ground 25 aircraft or about 50% of its Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet by May 1 due to Pratt & Whitney engine issues. Pratt & Whitney is the sole engine supplier for GoFirst’s Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet.
Go First has argued in the case that the Pratt & Whitney engine had a “serious design flaw” that led to the shutdown and premature failure, and the grounding of its aircraft.
On the other hand, the American engine-maker said the recently rebranded Go First “has a long history of meeting its financial obligations to P&W”.
The Wadia Group-owned airline has now canceled flights till May 9 and assured full refunds to passengers – a day after it abruptly suspended operations and declared bankruptcy. The cash-strapped airline has also suspended ticket sales till May 15.
To Go First’s allegation, the US firm retaliated by saying that the Wadia Group had a “long history” of missing financial obligations to the company.
But in a strongly worded three-page statement on Tuesday, GoFirst – formerly GoAir – said the airline had taken a hit of Rs 10,800 crore in lost revenue and additional expenses. “In addition, GoFirst has paid Rs 5,657 crore to lessors in the last two years, of which around Rs 1,600 crore has been paid to promoters for lease rent for non-operational grounded aircraft and the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme of the Government of India This was done with the funds provided by read the statement.
The company also stated that GoFirst management had repeatedly sought to engage with Pratt & Whitney on the engine issue, but Pratt & Whitney did not respond constructively. “Instead, despite its contractual obligations to provide a spare leased engine within 48 hours of failure, it refused to provide GoFirst with an adequate spare leased engine and refused to repair GoFirst’s engines “
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