Air Tanzania and Air Senegal consider legal action against Pratt and Whitney

Air Tanzania was the first airline to take delivery of the A220 in Africa whilst Air Senegal is the newest member to the A220 family in Africa and now the two airlines have teamed up to find a way forward with the challenges of the PW1524G-3 engines installed on the A220 jets. The A220 powered by the Pratt and Whitney engine has caused major challenges for the two airlines. At some point, Air Tanzania had to cancel multiple flights as three of their four A220s were grounded. For more on that click here.

Recently, Air Senegal and Air Tanzania airline executives held a meeting in Tanzania to discuss the problems and possible ways forward, which could include taking legal action if they do not receive compensation for the downtime as well as late delivery of aircraft for Air Senegal. The Chief Executive Ladsilaus Matindi said, “We have been engaged in amicable negotiations with the company to fix the serious engine problems so that the planes can resume normal flight operations, but if amicable negotiations fail, we could resort to legal action.”

There are some unconfirmed reports which were stating that Air Senegal was considering cancelling its A220 order, which currently stands at five jets with options for three more. Of the five, they have only received one whilst two jets which were supposed to be delivered last year are yet to be handed over to the airline. Media reports claimed that Air Senegal was instead looking to place an order with Embraer for the E2 variant, which ironically uses the same engines as the A220.