Buyers ditch new Pratt engine for GE model

Washington

PRATT & Whitney's US$10 billion bet on a new jet engine is faltering after a troubled rollout, and buyers are rushing to a General Electric model instead.

The GE turbine has won 10 times as many orders this year to power a narrow-body Airbus plane on which the two suppliers compete head to head.

Pratt has signed just one buyer in that span to supply its geared turbofan engine for the aircraft, according to data provided to Bloomberg by Flight Ascend Consultancy.

The figures paint a stark picture for Pratt and parent United Technologies Corp, which billed the so-called GTF as a technological breakthrough that was supposed to help reverse GE's recent market dominance.

Instead, weak demand for the engine is fuelling doubts about the long-term payoff of Pratt's most…