By Leithen Francis in Singapore
Engine maker Pratt & Whitney (P&W) has hit back at recent Vietnamese media reports claiming national carrier Vietnam Airlines made the wrong decision in choosing to equip its fleet of Boeing 777s with P&W engines.
State-owned carrier Vietnam Airlines is currently subject to a government probe into its management and business dealings and in recent months there have been articles critical of the airline including some that have questioned why it chose P&W for its 777s - the carrier in early 2002 chose PW4048 engines to power its 777-200ERs.
Some Vietnamese news organisations have suggested P&W was the wrong choice and asserted that General Electric and Rolls-Royce engines are more suitable for Vietnam Airline’s long-haul 777 operations.
But Pratt & Whitney has hit back and written to Vietnam Airlines, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) and the Vietnam government’s Aviation Office to express its concerns at “misinformation” contained in these reports.
“We strongly believe, as we did in 2002, that Vietnam Airlines, when it chose the PW4084D engines to power its 777 fleet, made the best engine choice given Vietnam Airlines’ stated specific requirements at that time.” P&W senior vice president Michael Field says in a letter sent 27 June.
One reason the airline chose the P&W engines is because of “the decreased thrust rating” which “provides a longer on-wing life and lower operating cost”, says Field.
In 2002, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US, the airline was more focused on serving Asian markets rather than trying to tap the US market.
Some Vietnamese news reports have suggested the higher thrust rating of other engines means P&W was the wrong choice for long-haul operations. Vietnam Airlines, for example, next year plans to launch ultra-long haul operations to the USA west coast via an intermediary point, possibly Taipei in Taiwan.
But Field at P&W firmly rebuts the Vietnamese news reports. “Contrary to what has been portrayed in the press, the engines Vietnam Airlines purchased from P&W, with a minor hardware change, are fully capable of the same approximate 90,000 pound thrust rating as our competitors’ engines.”
Therefore “it is simply inaccurate for anyone to say that Vietnam Airlines chose ‘medium range’ engines to power a ‘long-range’ aircraft,” he adds.
Vietnam Airlines president and chief executive Nguyen Xuan Hien has also sought to publicly explain why the airline chose P&W over other engine makers.
He recently told local reporters that another reason the airline chose P&W, over R-R and GE, was because the purchase price was cheaper. Even after R-R later readjusted its prices, P&W was still cheaper, he added.
Source: Flight International
