British aerospace manufacturing giant Rolls Royce has announced a combined $2bn worth of engine orders from Air China and Ethiopian Airlines.
Rolls Royce announced the deals yesterday morning at the Dubai Airshow.
The firm will supply Trent 700 engines for20 Air China Airbus A330s and Trent XWB engines for 12 Ethipoian Airlines Airbus A350 XWBs. The China deal is worth $1.5bn while the Ethiopian company will pay $480m. The engines will be delivered from 2012 and from 2017 respectively.
“We are delighted that Air China is again turning to Trent engine technology,” said Phil Harris, Rolls-Royce’s senior vice president of customer business. “It offers Air China many advantages, such as the ability to maximise capacity at hot and high altitude airports, minimise fuel costs and benefit from the Rolls-Royce TotalCare® comprehensive long-term support package.”
Meanwhile, “We are delighted to welcome Ethiopian Airlines to the Trent family of customers,” said Metin Oktay, Rolls-Royce’s vice president of customer business in Africa. “African airlines are continuing to invest in response to growing global customer demand. The Trent XWB, our latest Trent, will provide Ethiopian Airlines with leading edge technology which will keep costs to a minimum.”
The Trent 700 is the only engine specifically designed for the A330 and has won 70 per cent of orders in the last three years. Rolls Royce says over 1,000 Trent 700s are now in service or on firm order.
China’s growing commercial aerospace market has previously been identified as potentially lucrative to British companies by UK Trade & Investment. Last month the government backed business support agency hosted a delegation of senior figures from Chinese firms and escorted them around UK manufacturing sites on order to demonstrate the leading technology and low carbon developments that UK firms can provide.
