OREANDA-NEWS. Rolls-Royce has been selected by Airbus to provide Trent 700 engines and long-term TotalCare® engine service support, worth \\$700m for five new Beluga XL air transporter aircraft.

The aircraft will replace the current Airbus Beluga fleet, which is powered by engines from another provider.

The Beluga XL, based on the A330 design, was launched in November 2014 to address the A350 XWB ramp up and the transport capacity requirements for other programmes. Compared to the current Beluga, the Beluga XL will provide Airbus with an additional 30 per cent air transport capacity.

Bertrand George, Airbus Senior Vice-President, Head of Beluga XL programmes, said: "We look forward to the Trent 700 powering this important development in our air transport strategy. The engine has an excellent record on the A330 and is ideally suited to our requirements for this aircraft."

Simon Carlisle, Rolls-Royce, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Future Programmes – Civil Large Engines, said: "We welcome this decision to select an engine that is the clear market leader on the A330 and offers outstanding performance in terms of fuel burn, reliability, emissions and noise."

The Trent 700 has won more than 60 per cent of new orders over the last three years. The Trent 700 now accounts for 90 per cent of A330 freighters in service and on order.

More than 1,500 Trent 700s are now in service or on firm order, making it the largest in-service Trent engine.

About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

  1. The order announced today will result in an increase in the Group’s order book of \\$300m, in accordance with Group policy. The contract is consistent with the disclosures set out in the market update issued by Rolls-Royce Holdings plc on 6 July 2015.
  2.  Rolls-Royce’s vision is to create better power for a changing world via two main business divisions, Aerospace and Land & Sea. These business divisions address markets with two strong technology platforms, gas turbines and reciprocating engines. Aerospace comprises Civil Aerospace and Defence Aerospace. Land & Sea comprises Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
  3. Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 120 countries, comprising more than 380 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
  4. Our business is focused on the 4Cs:
    • Customer – placing the customer at the heart of our business
    • Concentration – deciding where to grow and where not to
    • Cost – continually looking to increase efficiency
    • Cash – improving financial performance.
  5. Annual underlying revenue was £14.6 billion in 2014, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at £76.5 billion at 30 June 2015.
  6. In 2014, Rolls-Royce invested £1.2 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.
  7. Rolls-Royce employs over 54,000 people in more than 50 countries. Over 15,500 of these are engineers.
  8. The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2014 we employed 354 graduates and 357 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes. Globally we have over 1,000 Rolls-Royce STEM ambassadors who are actively involved in education programmes and activities; we have set ourselves a target to reach 6 million people through our STEM outreach activities by 2020.