FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A global engine recall is expected to ground 20 Airbus jets from Lufthansa every day next year. The group has a total of 64 aircraft with the affected geared turbofan engine from manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said in a conference call on the quarterly figures in Frankfurt on Thursday. Including spare engines, 146 turbines would have to be serviced in the Lufthansa Group as a result of the recall. Spohr is relying on the Group subsidiary Lufthansa Technik. It is expected to significantly shorten the maintenance period.

RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney announced a comprehensive recall of its geared turbofan engines in the summer. The reason for the recall was a problematic metal powder that Pratt & Whitney used in the production of the turbine disks. The engine type is used on around one in two jets in Airbus' most popular A320neo model series worldwide.

Spohr hopes to complete maintenance on the affected engines faster than Pratt & Whitney and its German partner MTU. There, each engine is expected to be out of service for up to 300 days, partly because of long waiting times for workshop appointments and spare parts. Spohr hopes that Lufthansa Technik will be able to do this 100 days faster. He also expects the maintenance wave to generate revenue for the subsidiary. After all, almost all of the more than 3,000 geared turbofan engines delivered so far worldwide are affected by the problem.

When Lufthansa ordered its medium-haul jets from the Airbus A320neo family, it relied only half on the geared turbofan and also ordered the competing Leap engine from CFM, a joint venture between Safran and General Electric. According to Spohr, however, only ten aircraft with the Leap engine have been delivered to the Lufthansa Group so far./stw/men