Rolls-Royce flies onwards in spite of end to the Airbus A380
Rolls-Royce cushioned the blow from the end of Airbus’ A380 on Thursday after landing a major deal to supply 70 smaller planes ordered by Emirates.
The aerospace giant, a major supplier of the A380, will make engines for a batch of 40 A330neo aircraft and 30 A350s for the Middle Eastern carrier.
The A330neo aircraft is powered by the Trent 7000 engine and the A350 uses the Trent XWB engine. Rolls put no price on the contracts. It reports results on February 28.
Civil aerospace president Chris Cholerton said: “The addition of Airbus A330-900 and Airbus A350-900 aircraft to the Emirates fleet will make the airline one of the largest users of Trent engines in the world and we look forward to continuing to support them and their customers.”
The ordering spree offset a blow to Rolls after Airbus called time on the A380. Rolls will cut the number of Trent 900 engines supplied to major customer Emirates from 52 to 33 after the carrier reduced orders for the jumbo jet.
The Derby-based manufacturer will provide Trent 900 engines for another 14 Airbus A380s before production ends — taking the total Rolls-powered fleet for Emirates A380 to 33.
Emirate’s order cut has prompted Airbus to end production of the A380 by 2021. Emirates is the world’s biggest user of the A350 with 109 in the fleet.
Cholerton said the company was “saddened” by the demise of the A380.
In 2015, Rolls-Royce won a contract worth more than £6 billion to power Emirates’ A380 after the carrier ditched previous supplier Engine Alliance.
Airbus, based in Toulouse, said up to 3,500 jobs would be affected by ending production of the A380.
Launched in 2005, the A380 was designed to take on Boeing’s 747 jumbo with double-decker seating and nearly 550 seats. However orders were sluggish and carriers increasingly preferred to order smaller planes that were more fuel efficient and easier to sell out.
Airbus will make 17 more planes, including 14 for Emirates and three for Japanese carrier ANA.
