The grounding and retirement of older Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines is causing the manufacturer to scale down radically its overhaul operations for the powerplant. In parallel it is winding up its maintenance of the V2500 engine to fill the gap.
"From the P&W perspective the JT8D is the engine most dramatically affected, with two of my five overhaul shops most significantly hit because of 11 September," says John Thackrah, vice-president aftermarket services.
Sunset
"As a result we are facing an accelerated sunset of the JT8D product," he says. Prior to 11 Spetember, P&W was planning to overhaul 250 engines per year at its maintenance shops, but has revised these numbers to 150-180 engines per year.
It is transferring all JT8D overhauls from its shop in Columbus, Ohio – which was dedicated to the engine – to Christchurch, New Zealand, says Thackrah. The Columbus engine centre is rapidly winding up to become P&W's "centre of excellence" for the V2500 engine, and the first powerplants will go there in August, he explains. It will work up to handling 60-80 engines per year, and it will entirely take over the V2500 overhauls performed by P&W's former US-based V2500 shop in Cheshire, Connecticut. The transfer of JT8D work to New Zealand will take up to two years.
Source: Flight Daily News
