PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC
Emirates pushes Rolls-Royce to improve reliability and support of 777 engines as the airline considers alternatives
Emirates has expressed growing frustration with the Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engine's reliability and support issues, and what the carrier regards as the slowness of the manufacturer to respond. The recent complaints come at a difficult time for the engine company as it fights to maintain a position as the Middle East carrier's principal powerplant supplier in the face of strong competition from General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.
According to industry sources, on a recent visit to Dubai, outgoing R-R chairman Sir Ralph Robins faced strong criticism from within the Emirates engineering community over the recent performance of the Trent 800 engine on the carrier's fleet of 18 Boeing 777-200/300s. Issues lie with the engine's high-pressure compressor first-stage rotor, and cracking in particular, say sources. During an earlier problem, Boeing had to ship a Trent 800 from its production floor as a replacement engine.
R-R describes Robins' trip as simply a "normal courtesy visit", adding that the Trent continues to display a good level of reliability, but the company is looking at ways to improve that.
The Trent 800 in Emirates service suffers from a below-average on-wing time, but a major contributing factor is the airline's operating requirements and environment that has put the engine at a constant level of stress, says Emirates chief director Tim Clark: "Any derate is virtually non-existent - the engines are always working flat out at heavy take-off weights in high temperatures on long missions."
He adds: "R-R has looked at all aspects of the engine - design, quality control and hardware - and we are confident that it has now come up with a package that addresses the problems and will make the Trent 800 a robust, reliable engine."
Industry sources caution that Emirates' complaints come in the middle of a major engine competition and the airline is using this as leverage to extract the maximum concessions. The airline plans to order at least 25 more 777s and is trying to decide between the -300 version for shorter-haul flights powered by either the General Electric GE90, Pratt & Whitney PW4098 or Trent 895, or opting for the increased gross weight -300ER long-range derivative powered exclusively by the GE90-115B.
R-R is pushing the latest Trent 895C for the 777-300, which will have improved durability and take-off thrust, while the airline is also interested in the possibility of retrofitting it to its existing aircraft. Emirates earlier this year dealt R-R a massive blow by opting for the GE/P&W Engine Alliance GP7200 for its large planned fleet of A380s.
Source: Flight International
