After receiving the prayer it had made before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the legal scene has now shifted to a US court, where Go Airlines (India) Ltd has filed a lawsuit against aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney. filed.
The Wadia Group low-cost airline has taken Pratt & Whitney to court in the US to honor the award made by an emergency arbitrator appointed as per the 2016 arbitration rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC). Speaking to IANS, Kaushik Khona, CEO of Go Airlines said that the decision of the US court is expected soon.
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According to the airline, it was forced to apply to the NCLT after Pratt & Whitney, the exclusive engine supplier for its Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet, refused to comply with the award issued by an emergency arbitrator appointed as per the arbitration rules of 2016. Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC).
“That order directs Pratt & Whitney to take all reasonable steps to release and dispatch to Go First at least 10 serviceable spare leased engines by April 27, 2023, and an additional 10 leased engines per month through December 2023.” , with the objective of returning Go First to full operations and achieving its financial rehabilitation and survival,” the airline said.
Go Airlines said that even if Pratt & Whitney complies with the arbitration award, it will be able to resume full operations by August/September 2023. Khona said that his visit to India in January 2023 to meet top executives of Pratt & Whitney also did not yield any results. In any positive feedback.
Pratt & Whitney’s top executives, Shane Eddy, headed to Bengaluru in January 2023 to officially inaugurate the company’s India Engineering Center (IEC).
“On January 19, 2023, Varun Berry (Managing Director and Vice-Chairman of Britannia Industries Limited of the Wadia Group) and I went to Bengaluru to meet Eddy and Mr. Hendrik Deurlu, President, (Commercial Engines) to ask again. Lose Provide the much-awaited and promised reconditioned engines and spare engines and include failed engines in MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul),” told IANS.
According to Go Airlines, the engine manufacturer promised via a signed side letter in 2012 that if an engine failed within its initial 6,000 hours (or 4,200 take-off and landing cycles) of normal operation, it would Will repair and overhaul that engine. charge.
The airline said problems with Pratt & Whitney engines have been an industry-wide issue. The teething problems persist even after so many years which clearly indicates an underlying design problem.
Go Airlines alleged, “These GTF engines were prematurely tested on an unproven, ‘new’ technical platform and forced to attract the airline’s attention with market performance figures.”
“Between 2016 and February 2023 GoFirst (the brand of Go Airlines) carried out 510 GTF engine removals: 289 engine changes resulting in at least 28 different faults and 221 engine swaps. It also shows that the most prevalent by some The technical problem has been an order of magnitude combustibility crisis with the removal of 140 GTF engines for this issue alone.”
Airlines said that 15 percent of the total Pratt & Whitney GTF operated aircraft are grounded due to faulty engines globally (178 aircraft out of 1,219 aircraft grounded till March this year. And the most affected region is India, with 65 grounded There are aircrafts Total 178.
“Out of a total of 60 global customers, only four have grounded more than 25 per cent aircraft and two of them are Indian. Pratt & Whitney’s recent proposal under which they offered 5 per cent induction slots to Go First irrespective of AOG. Go Airlines said, `54 per cent of the (grounded aircraft) is hard to believe and a deliberate attempt to kill Go First.
According to Khona, if Indian travelers are now paying higher airfares, it is because of Pratt & Whitney. “They (Pratt & Whitney) take India for granted,” Khona said.