Is it that you are dedicated to the Airbus only? The IAE engine is available on three aircraft types: the Airbus A320 family — 319,320,321. Also, the Boeing MD 90 — which has now ceased production — has the V2500 engine on it. The newest application is the Embraer KC-390 which is the Brazilian Air Force’s choice for military transport and tanker. Historically, Air India has been with V2500, but for the recent 43 aircraft, why did they move to CFM? I think you’ll have to ask Air India that. That’s a choice they’ve made, not us. H.C. TIWARI
Are you are looking at any wide body options or is the whole focus is on narrow bodies? The IAE V2500 is an engine with a thrust class between 23,000-33,000 pounds and that’s only suitable to the narrow bodied market. The wide bodied markets are adequately powered by our parent companies: Rolls Royce and Pratt and Whitney.
commercial programme, not a support programme per se, like the fleet air agreement. And I really can’t discuss the details of that because it is commercially confidential between Kingfisher and us.
Can you say something about ‘pure power’ that was first signed by IndiGo in India? Yes, that’s nothing special with IndiGo. That is the service that we offer all our customers whether it be on new airplane or on used airplane. It’s called an FHA (Fleet Hour Agreement) and it is powered by our maintenance programme where the airline pays $1 per flight hour and in return we maintain the engines to an agreed work scope level.
You have a market share of 65 per cent, but Kingfisher’s is a shrinking fleet, Air India has gone for CFM, GoAir has gone for Pratt and Whitney and even IndiGo in round two has gone for P&W. So where does that leave you and what are doing to regain your position in India? It’s a very good question and the answer is IAE provides V2500 engines for the current family of A320 airplanes and that airplane is called Current Engine Option (CEO). So, if the airplane’s been in serv-
So, you are literally providing maintenance by the hour so to speak? Yes. Part of the service is what we call an AOG service (an Aircraft-on-the-Ground service). So, if an engine has to be removed because of a problem — that normally isn’t the case as most engines can be fixed on wing and that is normally the most beneficial route for the airline. But if an engine has to be removed, then it is removed and the spare engine is fitted. A spare engine can be part and provided by IAE’s fleet air agreement because we provide spare engine services or in some cases the airline has its own spare engines. Kingfisher too has an agreement for maintenance with you? No. I mean there are different types of maintenance programmes. The maintenance programme with Kingfisher is not a fleet hour agreement. It’s a different kind of a maintenance programme, more of a
RARING TO GO: A model of an engine by IAE displayed at India Aviation 2012.
What’s the shareholding? At the moment, Pratt and Whitney and Rolls Royce have an equal shareholding of 32 per cent. The other shareholders are MTU of Germany and a Japanese Consortium-IHI (Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries) and KHI (Kawasaki Heavy Industries). CRUISING HEIGHTS May 2012
ice for the last 30 years, and it’s available with an IAE engine or a competitor’s CFM… Now from 2016, Airbus will offer the A320 in a different guise. It’s called the NEO and that’s the New Engine Option. And the engine options on the NEO are Pratt and Whitney DTF or CFM LEAP-X. The V2500 isn’t provided on the NEO airplane as today’s CFM engine isn’t provided on the NEO airplane. So, it’s a natural progression of the A320 family into the next generation of fuel efficiency. And IAE and its shareholders — and the majority of which is to be Pratt and Whitney after the company is restructured — has decided that it wants to use the route to market with the Pratt and Whitney engine with the NEO aircraft rather than the V2500. What’s the road ahead? The road ahead for IAE is to continue providing the V2500 engines on today’s Current Engine Option airplanes and there are already 2,000 engines on firm backlog and as long as the airlines in the world want to buy today’s engine on today’s airplanes, and there are a lot of them out there still, it’s not everybody’s cup of tea to want the NEO. And airlines already have a fleet of V2500 want to grow a little more, maybe for now would want to maintain the same engine. So, there are different reasons why the Current Engine Option will continue in production and the partnership between the IAE and its partners, signed up to 2045. So, we are committed at least until then. This programme’s half way over. The planes delivering now will be in the market for 30 years and we’ve been here for nearly 30 years. So we are halfway there.
27