Pratt & Whitney – 2021 engine & MRO outlook

When will the engine market take off again for Pratt & Whitney?

Prior to the pandemic, “things were very good for the OEMs”, with order backlogs and strong aftermarket returns. While the period since the start of COVID has seen unprecedented disruption, vaccine development is helping with recovery prospects, but this will vary according to the segment. “The pre-COVID levels should come back about the end of this year for the narrow-body. The wide-body is a different story, that depends on the economies opening up.”

Looking closely at R&D, “it’s all about materials science”, the specialist explained. “As the engine manufacturers have pushed to develop the new-technology engines, and to push the efficiency, what that does is it pushes up the engine core temperatures.” With some engines “hotter than a volcano, well over 2,000 degrees”, the engine requires coatings able to deal with these “violent environments”.

When it comes to the competition, “I think Pratt & Whitney is positioned very well”, the former VP commented. “You think about 10 years ago, Pratt had no presence whatsoever in the 80- to 125-pack segment. Now they own it.” They also noted other strong points for the company, as well as the prospects for any partnerships or M&A within the sector.

The MRO market was one of the final topics, and according to the specialist “it’s just a mess right now”. One element of this segment, used serviceable materials, is seeing huge surplus owing to the pandemic – with aircraft grounded, engines are being taken to workshops to be broken down. “That’s going to be headwind to the OEMs going forward.”

To access all the human insights from Third Bridge Forum’s Pratt & Whitney – 2021 Engine & MRO Outlook Interview, click here to view the full transcript.