Rolls-Royce in £3.2bn engine deal with BA

Published on Wednesday 5 January 2011 21:16

Rolls-Royce has signed a £3.2 billion deal to supply British Airways with engines for up to 61 aircraft, in the first sale of its Trent 900 engine since one exploded in mid-air on a Qantas flight last year.

The manufacturing heavyweight will provide the airline with Trent 900s for 12 Airbus A380 planes and Trent 1000 engines to power 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

It comes as Rolls looks to allay safety fears about the Trent 900 after the explosion which forced the Australian carrier to ground its fleet of A380 superjumbos.

Rolls said after the incident it had isolated the cause of the failure to a specific component in the turbine of the engine, which sparked an oil fire and led to the release of another part - a turbine disc.

The deal, first announced in 2007, will see the firm service the engines after they are fitted and includes the option to provide several more engines.

Chief executive Sir John Rose said: "We are pleased that British Airways continues to put its trust in our world class Trent engine technology and service provision."

The manufacturer recently signed two contracts to supply engines to Chinese air carriers.

In November it won a $1.8bn (1.1bn) order from Air China for engines to supply and service 20 engines for ten Airbus A350s and ten A330s, a fortnight after an order worth $1.2bn from China Eastern Airlines.

Rolls shares closed up 5p at 659p.