Airbus engine production suspended

Rolls-Royce PLC said on Friday that it had suspended production of the engines because of delays in the superjumbo project.

Airbus parent company EADS announced on Tuesday that deliveries of the A380 superjumbo would be delayed by another year on average. It is the programme’s third setback since June 2005.

The Trent 900 engine was created especially for the Airbus A380, which will be the world’s biggest commercial passenger jet when it finally enters service.
   
Martin Brodie, a spokesman for Rolls-Royce, said on Friday:   “Yesterday we informed our employees that following the Airbus announcement on Tuesday we have suspended production of the Trent 900 for about 12 months because obviously we don’t need to be building engines if Airbus is not building aircraft.”

Rolls-Royce said it will continue development work on the Trent 900 engine for the A380, and said the suspension would not affect earnings guidance for this year.

The company said it expects to deliver no more than 30 of the engines to Airbus this year.

Rolls-Royce is contracted to supply engines for 48 per cent of the current firm orders for the A380, while General Electric Co. is supplying the rest, Brodie said.