Rolls-Royce to upgrade jet engines after withering criticism

Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc is investing more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) to upgrade the engines that power large commercial aircraft, seeking to improve their performance and durability after drawing criticism from a key customer.

The UK engine maker is working on stage-wise improvements that lift the durability of the XWB engine powering the Airbus SE A350-1000 jet. The upgrades are targeted particularly at sandy and hot climates such as the Middle East so that engines need less frequent servicing, according to Simon Burr, the company’s group director of engineering, technology and safety. 

Rolls-Royce is also working to upgrade the version of the XWB engine that sits on the smaller A350-900 in order to eke out 1% more fuel efficiency, Burr said. The Trent 7000 model will receive enhancements to achieve greater reliability on the smaller A330neo model, he said. 

Rolls-Royce is the only engine of choice on the Airbus A350 and A330neo models, and it also offers a powerplant for the Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner. The engine on the larger A350, in particular, drew the ire of Emirates President Tim Clark last year, who lambasted the model as “defective” because of its higher-than-usual maintenance cycles, leading him to deny Airbus a major order for the plane.

Under Chief Executive Tufan Erginbilgic, Rolls-Royce has unwound unprofitable engine contracts, which has occasionally put its relationship with Airbus under strain. Investors, on the other hand, have applauded his greater fiscal discipline, sending the shares up almost 50% this year following a record performance in 2023.

Reliability is particularly important for carriers in the Middle East, who run their aircraft in hot and demanding conditions, putting more strain on their planes. 

As part of the three stage program, Rolls-Royce will add more sand-resistant coatings to parts of the XWB-97 engine this year and modify certain components that will enter into service in 2028, the company said in a briefing ahead of the Farnborough Air Show that starts on Monday. The modified components will reduce engine temperatures but have the same overall shape, allowing them to be retrofitted into older models.

Burr said the company is also incorporating technologies, including using new proprietary alloys that it developed for its next-generation Ultrafan engine, on components for the XWB turbine, which Rolls-Royce says will improve so-called time on wing. That metric determines how long an engine can fly between maintenance cycles.