Pratt & Whitney is increasingly confident that technologies developed for its GTF Advantage engine can be inserted into the baseline PW1100G to improve durability and time-on-wing.
“As we have gone through the [Advantage] certification process, we are identifying elements that we can bring back into what I’ll call the base programme,” says Chris Calio, chief executive of parent company RTX.
“There are things that maybe a few years ago we weren’t sure we would be able to port over, but we are feeling today that is something we really want to pursue and have an avenue towards.”
Calio does not elaborate, but improvements are likely focused on better cooling technologies or enhancements to coatings.
Testing of the GTF Advantage – an enhanced version of the PW1100G for the Airbus A320neo family – has now wrapped up and P&W remains on track to begin deliveries in the second half of the year, he told analysts during a full-year results call on 28 January.
Calio highlights the continued “good progress” on the powerplant “with the completion of all engine testing requirements”, including a “test schedule with more-than-double the endurance testing of the original programme”.
Certification of the GTF Advantage is expected in the first half “with deliveries to follow in the second half”.
P&W promises the GTF Advantage will deliver a 1% fuel-burn improvement over the baseline PW1100G, more time-on-wing and 4% more thrust at sea level.
In the meantime, P&W continues to work through fallout from a manufacturing issue on geared turbofan engines where use of a contaminated powdered metal material in turbine blade production left parts susceptible to in-flight failure. It disclosed the problem in 2023.
The inspections and overhauls required to address the issue – alongside a lack of spare engine and maintenance capacity – has left airlines forced to ground large numbers of PW1000-powered jets, predominantly A320neo-family aircraft.
Calio says the groundings have now stabilised and highlights “very good progress last year”, with MRO output increased 30% and the production of critical parts increased significantly.
“And this year we expect MRO output to grow above 30%,” he adds. “Our 100% focus, again, is on bending the [aircraft-on-ground] curve to make sure we get those assets back into our customers’ hands as soon as possible.”
However, the issue has cost P&W. In 2024 it paid out $1.1 billion in compensation to airlines for the groundings and expects to take a similar-size hit this year.
“We will continue to work with customers to manage the timing of those cash flows,” adds chief financial officer Neil Mitchill.
P&W’s deliveries of large commercial engines – largely PW1100Gs – rose to 996 units last year, up from 875 in 2023, and P&W expects another increase across 2025 as it ramps up output.
A220s and Embraer E-Jet-E2s are exclusively powered by GTF engines, while the PW1100G is an option on the A320neo family.
Full-year adjusted operating profit at P&W, including its defence and aftermarket businesses, stood at $2.2 billion, on revenue of $28 billion, up on respective figures of $1.6 billion and $23 billion a year earlier.
Sister company Collins Aerospace, meanwhile, took a 6% year-on-year knock to its original equipment revenue in the final quarter thanks to reduced shipments to Boeing for the 737 Max programme on the back of a 53-day machinists’ strike that halted narrowbody production at the airframer last year.
Shipments to Boeing have since resumed, says Calio, “and we are working the ramp”.
Full-year adjusted revenues at Collins stood at $28.2 billion, with an operating profit of $4.4 billion.
