Flightglobal just has this story out. If it gets materialized (and I have no doubts), this is indeed a big coup for Pratt & Whitney and their PW1133G Geared Turbo Fan. After ILFC's selection for at least 60 of their 100 ordered A320NEO family aircraft (well, it is still an MoU as far as we know, but consider that it will be a firm order by June the latest), this is the second win over the LEAP-X engine. This is a bit surprising, as P&W can be considered a "new" engine OEM in the narrowbody market, as the V2500 offered now is sold by the IAE consortium and not by P&W themselves. So Pratt was believed to have a more difficult start to sell their engine, as they can not count on an own customer base like CFM can.
An advantage in this particular case was that IAE is providing the V2500 for the A320 ordered by Indigo before.
Meanwhile AirAsia CEO Fernandes said that an announcement for a A320NEO order would come soon and there would be some order conversions from the old order for classic A320's to the NEO version. Here CFM has a clear edge over P&W, as AirAsia currently uses the CFM56 and it would be difficult to convert an order from CFM56 powered A320's to GTF powered A320neo's.
There are orders and MoU's for 332 A320NEO family aircraft so far - 210 aircraft will be equipped with the GTF, so the GTF has a market share of (at least) 65% today. I am curious where this is after the Paris Air Show...
P.S.: Meanwhile the press release from P&W is out.
