Airbus 'would consider Pratt engine for A350'

* Sales chief quoted hinting at P&W return to big jet mkt

* Pratt & Whitney notching up sales for geared turbofan

* Comments echo shifting alliances among engine makers

By Tim Hepher

PARIS, April 5 (Reuters) - Airbus (EAD.PA) would consider putting a version of Pratt & Whitney's latest jet engines on its A350 mid-sized plane if the U.S. engine maker proposed it, Airbus sales chief John Leahy was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Such a move would potentially see a return of the United Technologies (UTX.N) unit as a standalone supplier to the market for long-range, wide-body airplanes with about 250-350 seats.

The Airbus A350 -- a mid-sized competitor to the Boeing (BA.N) 787 Dreamliner -- is currently sold only with Rolls-Royce (RR.L) engines and the European planemaker has faced calls from some airlines to add a second engine choice to fuel competition.

The other main supplier of engines for wide-body jets, General Electric (GE.N), has been courted for the A350 but has been hindered by potential competition between the A350-1000 and the most recent type of Boeing (BA.N) 777 twinjet. GE has an exclusive deal with Boeing for engines in that size range.

Now, according to an industry newsletter, Airbus has floated the possibility of Pratt & Whitney providing a third option by using new technology with which it has been scoring success in smaller narrowbody jets, the so-called geared turbofan (GTF).

"We certainly could consider the geared turbofan for the A350 -- if Pratt & Whitney propose it. They haven't yet. I know they have looked at airplanes in that category," Leahy was quoted as telling Air Insight (airinsight.com) in an interview.

Rolls-Royce is currently the only supplier for the A350 but it does not have an exclusive agreement with Airbus -- something Leahy said he would also be prepared to consider.

"I am not adverse to being sole-sourced to Rolls-Royce. De facto we are right now and it is selling very well in the marketplace," Leahy was quoted as saying.

"If Pratt wants to propose an engine on the A350 we'd certainly look at it. If Rolls wants to give us reasons to go exclusively with them, we'd certainly take a look at that too."

TIGHT SPOT

Analysts say Airbus is in a tight spot over the A350 because some major customers such as Emirates airline have called for a more powerful engine to give the largest A350-1000 variant more range, so that it can comfortably fly Dubai to Los Angeles.

Rolls-Royce is already covering the needs of three types of A350 airplane with just one type of engine, the Trent XWB, and could find it a stretch to widen the thrust range even further.

Industry sources have said it is considering making a second variant of XWB engine to meet all the different requirements.

Turning to GE for the higher thrust is complicated by the fact the the U.S. manufacturer has agreed not to help others compete with the long-range Boeing 777-300ER.

Leahy said the Airbus 350-seat A350-1000 may need a more powerful engine to go further or carry more weight but that he opposed increasing its size. Emirates president Tim Clark has said he wants both more range and more seats.

By putting out a welcome mat for Pratt & Whitney, Leahy's comments may shed new light on shifting alliances in the engine industry as manufacturers tackle a sudden leap in technology.

Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce have co-operated for years in making engines for 100-200 seat Airbus A320-family airliners.

But Rolls exercised a veto on their venture offering Pratt's GTF engine too, saying it had different ideas for that sector.

Some industry sources have suggested Rolls-Royce, which specialises in bigger wide-body jet engines, also did not want to give Pratt & Whitney a springboard into its own core market.

"They didn't want to validate the geared turbofan in case it becomes a competitive threat," a senior industry source said.

Pratt & Whitney is involved with GE in making engines for the A380 superjumbo but for some years has taken a backseat in the market for large airliners to both GE and Rolls-Royce.

Pratt announced the latest in a series of sales of the GTF for narrowbody planes on Monday with a deal to power 30 Airbus A320neo planes to be ordered by Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), the first such deal with an influential traditional carrier.

It competes with CFM International, a joint venture between GE and France's Safran, which is also offering a new type of engine, the Leap-X. Both offer 12-15 percent fuel savings.

A geared tubofan engine uses a gear to allow the fan at the front of the engine to move more slowly than the hottest parts, which Pratt sees as more efficient. The Leap-X relies mostly on modern materials rather than structural changes to save fuel.

(Editing by Bernard Orr)