Company Watch - Pratt & Whitney.

For more company news, data and analysis, please go to: http://www.airguideonline.com/professional.htm Jul 24, 2006

Pratt won't offer engine for A350 XWB. Pratt & Whitney President Steve Finger said at the Farnborough Airshow that the P&W-General Electric Engine Alliance is the most suitable vehicle to supply an engine for the redesigned and renamed A350 XWB, nixing the possibility that Pratt, which is not on the 787, will develop a new engine for the Dreamliner's rival. "We believe the [Engine Alliance] GP7000 has a lot of attributes that would work on the A350," Finger said during a media briefing at Farnborough. Jul 18, 2006

Pratt & Whitney said Evergreen International Aviation will purchase JT9D-7J durability kits for its fleet of JT9D-powered 747s. Agreement is for eight kits and is valued at $9 million with an option to purchase an additional 12 kits worth $16 million. Deliveries will begin this month. Jul 20, 2006

Pratt & Whitney Canada signed an exclusive five-year agreement with Kingfisher to maintain engines for its new fleet of 35 ATR 72-500s. The contract is valued at approximately $60 million. Under the agreement, P&WC will provide engine maintenance and accessory coverage for Kingfisher's 70 PW127Fs, along with seven spare engines. Jul 19, 2006

Pratt & Whitney earlier this year announced plans to design and certify 55 replacement parts for the CFM56, including 19 life-limited parts. That overall number subsequently was reduced to 48 because there was no customer demand for LPC parts, Bromberg stated. Jul 18, 2006

Pratt & Whitney President Steve Finger said at the Farnborough Airshow that the IAE V2500 remains the preferred vehicle to develop an engine for the next-generation single-aisle aircraft. It makes "natural sense to build on the market," he said. Pratt continues to develop its geared turbofan technology targeted for that market. Jul 18, 2006

Pratt & Whitney President Steve Finger, who is stepping down as head of Pratt's large engine business, acknowledged at the Farnborough Airshow that the GP7000 will have a bit of a challenge in meeting the 95,000-lb.-thrust requirement for the dash 1000 version of the A350 unveiled Monday by Airbus. "That is a rather large engine for that size family," Heath said, pointing out that the GP7000 is well-suited for the 74,000-84,000-lb.-thrust requirement of the dash 800/900 versions of the Airbus jet. "You want to leverage an existing investment whenever you can," he added. Jul 18, 2006

Pratt & Whitney's MRO activities, which account for a larger share of sales than does original equipment, President-Global Material Services Matthew Bromberg dismissed concerns expressed by CFM International executives that the use of Pratt & Whitney-made parts in CFM engines could impact engine performance and reliability and raise certification issues. "Our parts are fully interchangeable," he said, with "no impact on type certification and no impact on aircraft certification." Jul 18, 2006

Pratt & Whitney Global Service Partners has established the first European service center for its EcoPower engine washing system at Amsterdam Schiphol with Martinair as its European launch customer. EcoPower is a closed-loop system that uses atomized water rather than detergents to clean aircraft engines at approximately 20% power, meaning that washing can be done at the gate. All residues are collected during the washing process, eliminating runoff, and the water purified for reuse. In addition, the system can improve thrust specific fuel burn and reduce exhaust gas temperature for longer revenue service time, according to the company. In May, Pratt concluded a pilot program with long-time partner Martinair, washing 14 of the carrier's PW4000s. Martinair VP-Maintenance and Engineering Paul Horstink said fuel savings of between 1% and 2% were achieved, a reduction he described as "substantial."

Jul 17, 2006

Pratt & Whitney said Orenburg Airlines signed a five-year, $10 million exclusive Maintenance Service Agreement for CFM56 maintenance on up to five 737 aircraft. The work will be performed at the Pratt Norway Engine Center. Jul 20, 2006

Pratt & Whitney said Kingfisher Airlines will be the first customer for the PW4000 Advantage 70 upgrade developed for the PW4168A powering the A330. The Advantage70 package is set for certification in 2008. Jul 18, 2006