Rolls-Royce to conduct additional Trent 1000 Package C engine inspections
As part of its ongoing inspection and testing of certain Trent 1000 engines with in-service issues, Rolls-Royce have decided to carry out additional engine inspections to those previously planned.
In a statement, Rolls-Royce said that the increased inspection frequency is driven by its further understanding of the durability of the Trent 1000 Package C compressor, a condition that it highlighted earlier this year. These inspections will be supported by service management and flight operations guidance to airlines to be issued by the airworthiness authorities.
This will unfortunately lead to additional disruption for Rolls-Royce customers. There are 380 Package C engines currently in-service with airlines. This new regime does not impact Trent 1000 Package B engines or Trent 1000 TEN engines.
While the compressor technical issue was known at the time of the company's 2017 Full Year results on 7 March 2018, the requirement for more regular inspections will lead to higher than previously guided cash costs being incurred during 2018. Rolls-Royce are reprioritising various items of discretionary spend to mitigate these incremental cash costs and its guidance for 2018 FCF remains unchanged at Group FCF for 2018 of around £450m +/- £100m.
Warren East, CEO, Rolls-Royce, said: “Our focus is on supporting our customers and doing all we can to minimise any impact on their operations.
"We sincerely regret the disruption this will cause to our customers and our team of technical experts and service engineers is working around the clock to ensure we return them to full service as soon as possible. We will be working closely with Boeing and affected airlines to minimise disruption wherever possible.”