India's civil aviation authorities may question aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney over persistent issues with Airbus A320neo planes, reports said on Tuesday.
Engine glitches in Airbus A320neo aircraft have caused mid-air scare multiple times on Indian skies. Leading domestic carrier Indigo and rival GoAir are using Airbus A320 Neo aircraft.
The Indian authorities will meet executives from IndiGo, GoAir, Airbus and Pratt & Whitney on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing engine issues, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
IndiGo and GoAir have had to ground Airbus A320neo aircraft on many occasions in the last year after the engine glitch cropped up.
A flurry of actions initiated in March last year had led to the grounding of as many as 11 Neo planes used by IndiGo. Scores of flights were cancelled and hundreds of passengers were stranded as IndiGo and GoAir grounded planes with engines from the faulty Pratt &Whitney series.
At Tuesday's meeting, Indian officials may ask the airlines not to add anymore aircraft fitted with the faulty Pratt & Whitney engines to their fleet. They are also likely to ask the carriers to ground planes A320neo aircraft, the report said.
Delay in engine delivery
IndiGo and GoAir together have ordered as many as 500 Airbus A320neo aircraft. Airbus is facing an order backlog due to the delay in engine delivery from Pratt & Whitney.
On December 11, an IndiGo aircraft had to undergo emergency landing due to smoke in the cabin. In a similar incident on January 3, an IndiGo plane had to return due to technical problem. A handful of similar instances have happened in the course of the last year, giving rise to concerns in the aviation sector and among passengers.
Pratt & Whitney has said the reported glitch is in the knife-edge compressor seal in the engine turbine. It said last year it had started delivering engines with the "upgraded configuration and was working with its clients so that there is no disruption in operations.
A recent report said IndiGo switched 125 of its existing Airbus A320neo jet orders to the longer range A321neo model.
