Saudi Arabian Airlines has signed an agreement to expand Pratt & Whitney's EcoPower engine wash service network in the Mena region.

The agreement provides for Saudi Arabian Airlines to wash its own engines and offerengine wash services to other commercial airlines that fly within the kingdom. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp company.

Under the agreement, Saudi Arabian Airlines will operate two EcoPower service centre locations in Jeddah and Riyadh with options to expand to other locations throughout the kingdom.

Saudi Arabian Airlines will have capability to wash all engine types within their fleet and nearly any commercial aero engine in service today, including JT9D, PW4000, PW2000, GE90, Trent700, CF6, V2500, CFM56 and CF34 engines.

'Increasing fuel efficiency and decreasing CO2 emissions are top priorities for Saudi Arabian Airlines,' said director general Khalid Abdullah Almolhem.

'Operating as an authorised EcoPower service centre, we can now promote these benefits to all operators who fly within the kingdom,' said Ali Abdullah Milaat, managing director, Technical Services Strategic Business Unit for Saudi Arabian Airlines.

'We are pleased to expand the availability of EcoPower engine wash services through this partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines,' said Todd Kallman, president, Commercial Engines & Global Services, Pratt & Whitney.

Saudi Arabian Airlines, based in Jeddah, is the national airline of Saudi Arabia. It operates domestic and international scheduled flights to over 70 destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Pratt & Whitney's exclusive EcoPower engine wash system reduces fuel burn by as much as 1.2 per cent, eliminating approximately three pounds of carbon dioxide emissions for every pound of fuel saved, while also decreasing engine gas temperature thus increasing the amount of time an engine can stay on wing.

The EcoPower system, offered through the Pratt & Whitney Global Service Partners network, uses a closed-loop system with pure, atomised water to wash aircraft engines, avoiding potential contaminant runoff. The system is more effective and much faster than traditional engine washing processes.

Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines.-TradeArabia News Service