Rolls-Royce admits that the number of Trent 1000-powered Boeing 787s remaining on the ground as a result of regulatory maintenance demands is still “high”, in spite of its rectification efforts.
The Trent 1000 has been the subject of intense inspection activity as a result of blade durability problems.
Rolls-Royce says that, despite its substantially expanding its maintenance capacity this year, the number of aircraft out of service “remains at a high level”.
But the manufacturer says it is “determined and confident” that it will see a “significant improvement” in the situation over the first half of 2019.
It says that regulatory work on certifying redesigned intermediate pressure compressor blades on Trent 1000 ‘Package C’ powerplants is progressing “well”.
“Once certified, this new design of blade can then be fitted to Package C engines as they come in for overhaul, helping to reduce the current customer disruption on this engine variant,” it adds.
Rolls-Royce is also expressing confidence in its ability to ramp up Trent 7000 production for the Airbus A330neo, having fallen short of this year’s targets.
The manufacturer had expected to deliver 550 large engines this year but says “supply-chain challenges”, as well as early-stage ramp-up snags for the Trent 7000, forced it to cut this figure to 500.
But the company states that it has progressed with reducing unit losses on large engine production, and adds that strong flying-hour growth in the first half of this year continued into the second. “We expect full-year growth to be in the mid-teens range,” it adds.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
