Gulf Air has selected Rolls-Royce to power an additional 20 Airbus A330s that it is to start receiving in 2012.
The Bahrain flag carrier shrugged off the weak airline market by revealing that it was pushing to bring first deliveries forward to 2011.
Rolls-Royce will provide 44 Trent 700EPs, including four spares, to the airline, which already has Trents on its 10 A330-200s in service.
It will also provide its Total Care long-term support service for all the aircraft, including four leased machines, in a deal signed at the show by Gulf Air deputy chief executive Ismail Karimi and Rolls-Royce chief executive Sir John Rose.
Karimi says: "Our experience with the Trent 700 has been excellent. We went through a long process of selection for our new A330s and the main reasons we selected the Trent were technical, operational and environmental."
He says the new aircraft, currently planned to be A330-300s, were to add capacity on existing routes but also to grow the network within 6-8h flying time of Bahrain.
"In our region the market is much better than the rest of the world," says Karimi. "There is growth in Saudi Arabia, which is a main market for us, even if there are issues elsewhere.
"What we are doing is taking the opportunity to invest for the future. We are in negotiations around earlier delivery at the moment."
Rolls-Royce senior vice-president airlines, North Asia and Middle East, Phil Harris says that Gulf Air had signed a long-term agreement with Singapore Airlines Engineering for maintenance.
As a result, he says, it is logical for "at least some" of the engines supported under Total Care to be handled by Rolls-Royce's Singapore Aero Engine Services unit.
Source: Flight Daily News
