By Tim Hepher and Cyril Altmeyer
VILLAROCHE, France (Reuters) - The head of Safran's (PA:SAF) aircraft engines division said his company aimed to fix a Boeing (N:BA) plane engine glitch within weeks, after Boeing had to suspend test flights on a flagship new aircraft.
Boeing (N:BA) said on Wednesday it had halted test flights of its new 737 MAX aircraft due to an issue with the engine, made by Safran-GE joint-venture CFM International. Boeing uses a version of the engine called LEAP-1B.
The suspension came after Safran discovered a quality problem in turbine disks provided by one of two suppliers, and it is not related to the part's design, Safran Aircraft Engines Chief Executive Olivier Andries told reporters.
"There will be a temporary disruption to the logistics which we hope to fix within a few weeks," said Andries, speaking at a factory outside Paris where it co-produces the engines with General Electric (N:GE).
Safran will fly part of the engines it has already delivered to Boeing back from the United States to its French factory, inspect them and return them to Boeing. It will take about a week for each engine and Safran is putting in place resources to handle several at once, Andries said.
"It is not a design problem but a problem regarding the quality of the production," he added. "The LEAP-1A engine is not affected."
Andries declined to name the supplier involved in the quality issue but said an alternative supplier had agreed to step up production to compensate.
CFM's shareholders said last month they expected to deliver 450 to 500 LEAP engines this year instead of 500 stated earlier, although Andries said CFM still aimed to deliver as near as possible to 500 of those engines this year.
Boeing's test flight suspension comes days before it was due to deliver its first 737 MAX to Malaysia's Malindo Air.
Airbus, which offers a larger version called LEAP-1A on its new A320neo aircraft family, said on Wednesday it continued to conduct normal test flights and was unaffected.
However, it continues to experience delays in deliveries of the other choice of engine for that type of aircraft, the Geared Turbofan made by Pratt & Whitney (N:UTX).
CFM builds the LEAP engines for the latest generation of Boeing 737 aircraft and offers them for Airbus’s competing A320neo model in competition with Pratt & Whitney (N:UTX).
It also provides engines for China’s new C919 passenger jet which staged its first flight earlier this month.
Despite the latest glitch, Safran said Airbus has now delivered more of its A320neo with engines from CFM than Pratt & Whitney, which started six months earlier but has also run into widely reported technical problems.
Shares in Safran, which is aiming to complete a merger with rival Zodiac (PA:ZODC), were down 0.9 percent in mid-session trading - among the worst performers on Paris' benchmark CAC-40 index (FCHI) which was flat.