A Rolls-Royce facility in Singapore during the unveiling ceremony of a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 aero engine. Photo / Roslan Rahman, AFP
Some jet engine problems hobbling Air New Zealand are getting fixed but the airline’s chief has voiced a lack of confidence in Rolls-Royce.
CEO Greg Foran told the Herald he was happy with Pratt & Whitney’s progress on issues with engines for Airbus A320 and A321neo aircraft.
Foran was at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting in New Delhi earlier this week, where IATA director-general Willie Walsh blasted manufacturers.
Air New Zealand was especially exposed to engine troubles, Foran said.
“It’s a significant issue, and of course, it depends on what engines you have in your fleet,” he said.
“There would be only very few airlines that are impacted, actually, to the extent that we are.”
Foran said not all airlines used the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000s Air New Zealand used on Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
“Some run GEnx Engines, the General Electric engine, and some run both. We only run Trent 1000s and so it’s a big deal for us when that engine has been problematic since 2017 and still hasn’t been fixed.
“I’ve been deep in discussion with Rolls personally for the last three years, and they continue to tell me that it gets fixed by Christmas, but I’ve heard that twice now, and I hear the same thing.
“The proof ultimately comes down to, do you actually have the confidence to be able to put flying into the schedule knowing that you’re going to have engines back? And unfortunately, I don’t at the moment.”
He said Rolls-Royce had to devise a new blade for that engine.
“They’re close to getting it approved, but then it’s going to have to go through and get replaced on engines, what they call a shop visit.
“So I’m guessing it’s still going to be a two- to three-year process,” Foran added.
Rolls-Royce told the Herald it was working with all its customers to minimise impacts linked to the limited availability of spare parts.
“All of the companies in our industry are suffering from this,” a Rolls-Royce spokesman said.
“The Trent 1000 is an important engine for our customers and our business. Its reliability is proven, with over 20 million in service flying hours since its entry into service in 2011.”
Rolls-Royce said it had been taking decisive action and moving quickly to prioritise resources needed to reduce “industry-wide supply chain constraints”.
It said mitigating these problems was the top priority for its civil aerospace division.
“Our Trent 1000 Task Force has been working at pace to deliver these improvements, drawing on our world-class engineering and technology capability.”
The task force included people from Rolls-Royce’s operations, supply chain, engineering, technology, safety and planning teams.
The company said the high-pressure turbine (HPT) blade Foran referred to was likely to be approved imminently.
“Certification of the new HPT blade for the Trent 1000, which will double time on wing, is expected in the coming weeks and we remain on track to deliver a further 30% time on wing improvement for the Trent 1000 by the end of the year.”
Rolls-Royce added: “This same improvement package on the Trent 7000 has already proven to more than double time on wing, and we look forward to our Trent 1000 customers experiencing this same benefit.”
The Trent 7000 powers Airbus A330 wide-body jets.
Foran reiterated his happiness about the airline choosing GE engines for the new Dreamliners. The airline has 14 Dreamliners in its fleet now and eight on order.
He said for an airline such as Air New Zealand, small by global standards with 56 jets, to have about 10 unable to fly was significant.
But he voiced confidence in US manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.
A need to check the PW1100G engines for microscopic cracks threw maintenance schedules for those engines into disarray.
“I have a high level of trust that they are on top of what they have to do to fix that,” Foran said.
“It’s because they have engines that are getting returned to us, plus we have leased a couple more engines from them and that’s allowing us to reduce the amount of aircraft on ground."
Engine issues had been a disaster for the airline’s Auckland to Chicago service.
Last March, Air New Zealand said unexpected Trent 1000 maintenance needs meant three 787 Dreamliners would be unavailable.
“Chicago obviously is one that has been put on hold,” Foran said.
And the airline dumped its Los Angeles-London flights in 2019.
But Foran indicated that route might be resurrected.
There was no timeline yet for a possible return of direct flights to the third-biggest city in the US.
“We would probably start London before we go back to Chicago, but we will go back to Chicago.”
John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation and court. He has previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and court.