Emirates Says Rolls-Royce's A380 Engines Not Up to Standard
Feedback on the Trent 900 powerplants indicates "technical issues" that need to be resolved before the first plane is delivered to Emirates next month, said Tim Clark, the Dubai-carrier's president.
"We have a new engine coming on and there are some issues with that at the moment," Clark said at a media briefing. "We want the engines as promised in the contract."
Emirates last year ordered 217 Trent 900s — sufficient to power the 50 four-engine A380s, plus spares — after previously purchasing GP7000 powerplants from an alliance of General Electric Co. and Pratt & Whitney for its first 90 superjumbos. The deal with Rolls included unspecified "quality improvements."
Clark said Emirates will "hopefully" still take the first Rolls-Royce powered plane on Dec. 2 as planned, adding that talks are underway with the manufacturer on resolving the performance problems and whether it should compensate the airline.