Virgin Atlantic is marking what chief executive Shai Weiss describes as a “10-year cycle” of issues with its Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-powered Boeing 787-9 fleet by taking action to moderate its growth plans in 2025, as the engine-maker says it is rollling out improvements that will more than double the powerplant’s time on wing.
The UK carrier recently indicated that it would be postponing the launch of services to Accra in summer 2025 and pushing back its return to Tel Aviv as it adjusts to expectations of more 787 groundings in 2025.
Speaking during the Airlines 2024 event in London on 25 November, Weiss said those route-launch decisions were originally made with the expectation that Rolls-Royce would resolve the Trent issues in 2024, but that the SkyTeam carrier is now working under the assumption that they will endure through 2025.
“We have taken measures to reduce our schedule to accommodate for the fact that some of the 787s will not be available for flying,” he states.
Weiss suggest the situation could turn out better – or worse – than that assumption, but notes the action was necessary to ensure Virgin can maintain the integrity of its schedule.
“We’ve taken the action that we need, and we’re taking it early so that we can ensure that our on-time performance is good [and] that there are no cancellations on the day.”
Having received its first 787 in 2014, Virgin Atlantic is now marking a decade of engine challenges with the type, Weiss notes.
“This is a 10-year cycle on 787 issues – it started from the launch of the plane and the choice of the Rolls-Royce engine, the Trent 1000 engine, has not been a good engine,” he states.
“It’s not that it’s not safe, just to be clear, it’s just the number of cycles that you can run a plane with.”
Weiss estimates that the Trent 1000 can run just “a third” of the cycles that he would expect from a “traditional, well-harnessed” engine before it requires maintenance intervention.
Responding to the Virgin chief’s comments, a Rolls-Royce spokesperson says: “This is due to the current challenging industry-wide supply-chain constraints. We continue to work with all our customers to minimise the impact of the limited availability of spares parts. All of the companies in our industry are suffering from this.
“The Trent 1000 is an important engine for our customers and our business. Its reliability is proven, with over 19 million in service flying hours since its entry into service in 2011.
“We have been taking decisive action and moving quickly to prioritise the resources needed to reduce the impact created by the current industry wide supply chain constraints – it’s the highest priority for our Civil Aerospace division.
“Over the last 12 months we’ve introduced a number of initiatives to reduce the impact on our customers. Our Trent 1000 Task Force has been working at pace to deliver these improvements, drawing on our world-class engineering and technology capability. This Task Force brings together people from across our operations, supply chain, engineering, technology, safety and planning teams.
“In addition, our first stage Durability Enhancement package for the Trent 1000 is in the final stages of certification. This is part of the £1 billion [$1.25 billion] we are investing in our products. It will make our engine highly competitive and will more than double engine time on wing.”
Virgin is not alone in experiencing issues with keeping its 787 fleet flying.
Compatriot British Airways recently cut its flying schedule amid delays to the delivery of Trent engines and parts from Rolls-Royce.
Elsewhere, Air New Zealand earlier this year suspended operations to Chicago between 31 March and 25 October owing to the lack of spare Trent engines for its 787s.
And amid industry-wide supply-chain challenges, 787 groundings are not just affecting Trent-powered variants.
Kenya Airways, for example, was in September forced to amend its schedule again after two of its GE Aerospace GEnx-powered 787s were grounded amid unscheduled maintenance events and supply-chain challenges.
Virgin’s fleet of 44 widebody aircraft includes 17 787-9s.
