With $10 billion invested in R&D, we pioneered the GTF technology

With the kind of fuel economics and industry-leading dispatch reliability the current engine is now delivering; we expect the GTF Advantage, with its incremental thrust and efficiency gains, to have a market in India in future, says ASHMITA SETHI, President & Country Head, Pratt & Whitney, in this one-on-one with CRUISING HEIGHTS.

- ASHMITA SETHI

India became an early adopter of the revolutionary GTF engine in 2016. What have been the developments since then?

India was indeed one of the early adopters of the GTF engine back in 2016. We are proud to note that in India (and globally) the GTF has met or exceeded its fuel efficiency, emissions, and noise commitments from day one and has since achieved a strong record of dependability and low operating cost. This is the first new-architecture engine of its kind, allowing the fan and turbine to spin at their optimal speeds. The geared turbofan is the future of aviation.

In India, there are now more than 190 GTF powered aircraft that are helping drive the post-pandemic recovery for our customers like IndiGo and GoFirst. They are delivering the fuel-economics and efficiency airlines need. In the past 5 years, over 110 million passengers in India have flown on GTF powered aircraft. The engines have clocked more than 2.8 million engine flight hours for our Indian customers and saved 150 million gallons (580 million liters) of fuel for them.

In fact, in the past two years dominated by the pandemic, global data indicates that on the Airbus A320neo, GTF utilisation has been higher and GTF-equipped aircraft are usually the last planes taken out of service, and the first planes returned to service.

GTF-powered aircraft have introduced the world to a new era of more sustainable aviation with dramatic reductions in emissions and noise. Please elaborate in the Indian context.