Emirates due to receive first Rolls-Royce powered A380 in Dec
Emirates Airline is having some unspecified technical issues with Rolls-Royce engines for A380 jets that are coming up for delivery, but still hopes to take the first one as scheduled in December, the airline's president said on Friday.
When asked whether Emirates was looking to defer A380 jet deliveries given a tough operating environment for airlines, Tim Clark said no, but that there were some technical issues with the Rolls-Royce engines, new for the Emirates fleet, that needed to be ironed out.
"We want the engines as prescribed in the contract," Clark said at a meeting with journalists in Berlin, declining to elaborate.
Emirates is due to receive its first A380 powered by Rolls-Royce engines on Dec 2. The rest of its A380 fleet uses Engine Alliance, a joint venture of General Electric and Pratt & Whitney .
A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said: "We are working with Emirates and Airbus to meet the planned entry into service of the Trent powered A380 within the Emirates fleet."
The $9.2 billion deal for Rolls-Royce to supply engines for 50 Emirates A380 planes, announced in April 2015, was the largest order in the history of the British company.
Shares in Rolls-Royce were down 2.0 percent at 1028 GMT.
Clark said he hoped the airline could still take the first superjumbo with Rolls-Royce engines on Dec 2, as scheduled.
"We have made no hard and fast decisions about fleeting draw down. We're hoping to get a resolution to this very quickly," he said.
Emirates has $112 billion of aircraft on order, including 55 A380s. It is due to receive 5 A380s in December alone, Clark said.
"We are working with our customers, supporting their delivery stream," an Airbus spokesman said.
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