All three variants of the Airbus A350 XWB twinjet being ordered by Qatar Airways will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, the European airframer's chief salesman revealed last week.
Airbus chief operating officer customers John Leahy confirmed that R-R - so far the only powerplant manufacturer to commit to developing an engine to power all three A350 XWB models - has been selected for the Qatar airframes. He says talks are ongoing with General Electric to come up with a competing engine for the A350 XWB, although nothing has been finalised.
Qatar last week signed a memorandum of agreement to buy 20 A350-1000s, 40 A350-900s and 20 A350-800s with deliveries from 2013. The order supersedes a 2005 deal under which the carrier was to take 60 of the original-design A350, a mix of A350-800s and -900s. The carrier had intended to equip these with GE GEnx engines.
Source: Flight International
