Pratt & Whitney walked away from the Singapore Air Show with the most engine orders of any manufacturer, extending its footprint in an aerospace market expected to be the world's largest in just a few years.
Indian airline Air Costa and Singapore's BOC Aviation bought aircraft with 130 of Pratt's latest commercial offering, the PurePower Geared Turbofan engine. Combined with orders for its older V2500 engine to Turkish Airlines and Nepal Airlines, the total for the company reaches 184.
But the week's news wasn't all positive for the East Hartford manufacturer. Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing unnamed officials, that the Pentagon plans to request fewer than expected F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for next year, cutting into the Pratt engine program the company expected to escalate in the next few years.
In Singapore, major deals announced by Airbus, Embraer, Boeing and Rolls-Royce during this week's event totaled $32 billion, the show's organizers said. That compares with $31 billion in 2012.
The biennial event, in its fourth year, highlights the growth prospects for aerospace companies in the Middle East and Asia. Last year, air traffic in the Asia Pacific region rose 5.3 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association, the global airline industry group.
The industry group predicts the region will be the largest market for air traffic in 2016.
Pratt's main competitor, GE Aviation, sold 26 engines on Bombardier's regional jet and 72 engines for Boeing's 737 and the Airbus A320ceo, through its CFM joint venture with French aerospace firm Snecma.
The East Hartford-manufacturer's largest order was from Air Costa, a regional airline based in southeast India, which bought 50 of Embraer's E-Jets for a total value of $2.9 billion.
'Our goal is to improve connectivity within India, more specifically, the secondary and tertiary cities,' Air Costa Chairman Lingamaneni Ramesh said in a written statement. 'We believe that Embraer's E2 aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney's PurePower engines will help us reach that goal.'
Pratt has more than 5,000 orders and commitments for orders for the PurePower engine, which it says uses 16 percent less fuel and is three-quarters quieter than aircraft engines today. The engine will fly on medium range jets by Airbus, Bombardier, Embraer, Irkut and Mitsubishi.
BOC Aviation, an aircraft leasing company owned by the Bank of China, agreed to buy 15 A320neo aircraft from Airbus that each run on two PurePower PW1100G-JM engines.
Turkish Airlines, a member of the Star Alliance of global airlines, bought 25 new Airbus aircraft with twin V2500 engines from International Aero Engines, a joint venture of Pratt & Whitney, Japanese Aero Engine Corp., and MTU Aero Engines.
Nepal Airlines - which operates at six airports, in Delhi, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Doha - bought two Airbus planes with a total of four V2500s.
'Given Nepal's mountainous terrain, we chose V2500 SelectOne engines because of their long-standing reputation as both reliable and fuel-efficient power plants,' Madan Kharel, managing director of Nepal Airlines Corp., said in a written statement. 'These engines will help us to continue providing reliable air transport to our customers.'
In addition to the firm orders, the leading aircraft leasing company in mainland China, CDB Leasing Co. or CLC, placed an order for up to 30 Bombardier CSeries aircraft with PurePower engines, making the firm the first to buy the engines for mainland China, the company said.
'We are very pleased to work with CLC, the first PurePower customer in mainland China,' Pratt's head of commercial engines Dave Brantner said in a written statement.
Pratt & Whitney, a division of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp, also opened an parts repair center in Singapore for the company's PW4000 turbofan engine that powers Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The center is part of the company's $110 million investment into the Singapore facility, which will also include a 180,000 square-foot manufacturing center for parts of its PurePower engines.
In a press release, Pratt said the investments bring its total operations to nine businesses in the country, making it the company's 'most comprehensive aftermarket presence in one location.'
While orders for the company's commercial engines pile up, news Friday from Bloomberg deflated hopes that Pratt's latest military engine, the F135, would accelerate rapidly in coming years.
The news service reported that the Pentagon expects to ask for 34 of the aircraft in 2015, down from the 42 planned for earlier. The output would still be higher than plans for 2014, when the Pentagon plans to buy 29 of the aircraft. Bloomberg also reported that the Pentagon's reduced requests would continue into 2016, when it plans to procure 55 or the jets rather than 62.
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