British Airways orders Rolls-Royce engines

Power systems company Rolls-Royce has won orders to supply British Airways with Trent 900 and Trent 1000 engines for up to 61 wide-body aircraft.

The $5bn (£3.2bn) deal, originally announced in September 2007, will see Trent 900 engines power 12 Airbus A380 aircraft, with a potential seven options, and Trent 1000 engines to power 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with an additional 18 options.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, said: ‘We have had a long and positive relationship with Rolls-Royce, and we look forward to continuing to work with them in the future. We believe the support of the Rolls-Royce TotalCare package will significantly benefit British Airways operations.’

The Trent 1000 has been selected to power the first Boeing 787 to enter service with Japanese airline All Nippon Airlines and has so far powered over 2,000 hours of aircraft test flights.

Rolls-Royce suffered a number of problems with the engine models in the second half of 2010. A Trent 900 blew up November on a Qantas Airways A380 flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Singapore and in August a Trent 100 exploded, closing a test facility in Derby.