LONDON: Gulf Air, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national carrier, has awarded Rolls-Royce a $900m contract for Trent 1000 engines to power 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. The contract also includes long-term TotalCare service support.
In addition, Gulf Air also has the option to purchase the same engine to power 6 further Boeing 787-9s.
The aircraft all form part of Gulf Air’s recently announced wide-body aircraft orders, geared towards facilitating long term expansion capabilities for the airline’s future network requirement.
“Gulf Air’s current wide body fleet are also powered by Trent 700 engines and, with this latest development, we look forward to continuing our longstanding relationship with Rolls-Royce as we take an important step forward in developing our future fleet. We have experience of the Trent engine and its durability and resilience in a variety of operating conditions and we are confident the Trent 1000 will deliver the same outstanding performance,” Mr. Maher Salman Al Musallam, Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer, said.
“We are proud to be selected by a valued customer such as Gulf Air and this marks a significant success for the Trent 1000. It has developed a real momentum in the marketplace, winning more than 60 per cent of engine competitions in the last six years,” Eric Schulz, Rolls-Royce, President – Civil Aerospace, said.
The signing was witnessed by Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications H.E. Engineer Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, H.E. Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to United Kingdom and British Ambassador to Bahrain, Simon Martin.
Gulf Air’s restructured aircraft orders were announced in January this year at the Bahrain International Airshow 2016 and comprise 45 aircraft in total with deliveries commencing from Q2 2018. Today’s announcement follows the recent release of Gulf Air’s 2015 financial and operational results, which showed the airline’s ongoing positive development as it realises full commercial sustainability and increasingly focuses on managing and further investing in its ongoing growth and development.
Rolls-Royce powered the very first Boeing 787 test flight in December 2009, the first 787-8 to enter service in October 2011, and the first 787-9 to enter service, in 2014.
