It's All or Nothing on New 100-Seat Airbus

Raising the stakes in a game of chicken between two of the world's major engine companies, CFM International says it will walk away from the proposed 100-passenger Airbus A319M5 if the Pratt & Whitney PW6000 turbofan is launched on that airframe.

"It must be offered with just one engine, as it is not a huge market," CFMI President Gerard Laviec told Show News. "If Pratt is selected, we will not offer the CFM56."

Pratt & Whitney president Karl Krapek earlier told Show News he "will do anything" to launch the PW6000 on the new Airbus. Without that launch, P&W will be almost completely shut out of the market for narrowbody airliners which it used to dominate with the JT8D engine but which CFMI is on track to take an 85% market share.

"Is that airliner going to be a success with a brand new PW6000 engine?" Laviec asked. "Airbus must decide." It will have better sales prospects with the popular CFM engine, he believes, "as with a new engine, that aircraft has no commonality with the rest of the Airbus family." In contrast to the untried PW6000, he pointed out, CFMI will bring a huge base of 244 customers in 89 countries, some 80 repair stations and 150 technical representatives around the world-and commonality with the existing CFM56 engine fleet.

"On that basis we should be paid to provide the engine to Airbus," Laviec said. How determined is he to win the program? "We will do our best, but we must have a positive business plan," he said. "I prefer not to lose money, and to invest instead in a better engine for the future." As for Pratt counting on the M5 to launch its narrowbody engine, Laviec questioned the wisdom of such a move when "a good engine" already exists.

"I hope Airbus doesn't take the wrong decision" for the sales prospects of the aircraft, Laviec added.

CFMI has won nearly 60% of the market for narrowbody airliners in the 1990s, largely because of its position as the sole powerplant on more than 3,000 of Boeing's wildly successful 737s. Laviec believes CFMI's share of new orders will increase to 85% over the next five years, based on current orders and options already on his books, as older narrowbodies with Pratt's JT8D engines are retired and an additional 2,500 aircraft are added to the fleet. At that point, CFMI will power almost two thirds of the entire world fleet of almost 10,000 narrowbody 100- to 200-passenger airliners. Rival International Aero Engines will take 15% of new orders with its V2500. Pratt, as a partner in IAE, will account for only five percent. "You can see why Krapek is nervous," Laviec said.

Pratt's Krapek admits that mistakes of the past led to P&W losing the narrowbody market. Will the same happen to CFMI? "No," says Laviec. "We won't keep our heads in the sand like Pratt. We are going to be very, very careful to prepare for the future, and we are investing already in new technology to be ready for whatever happens."

He will not launch a new CFM engine to match Pratt's proposed geared-fan PW8000, which has yet to find a customer. "I don't see any immediate need for a new engine," said Laviec. "Some competitors are nervous as they have been left out of the market; they are coming back with paper engines offering good paper performance and reliability. They will find us already there. But before that, we will provide the engines the airframers demand for their customers."