The first Trent 1000 engine has been sent to Rolls-Royce’s Maintenance, Repair, and Overall facility in Dahlewitz, Germany.
The engine’s arrival follows a commitment Rolls-Royce’s made in March to invest £55 million (US$70 million) in assembly, test, and shop visit capacity in the UK and Germany, creating around 300 jobs,
The investment is supposed to improve customer aftermarket support for the fleet of Rolls-Royce Trent engines as long-term demand for new civil large engines grows.
Rolls-Royce expects an annual increase of 7-9% in Rolls-Royce powered aircraft in service for the remainder of the decade.
Paul Keenan, director – commercial aviation aftermarket operations, Rolls-Royce said, “We’re investing in a resilient future and plan to increase our global MRO capacity and capability by 2030.
“Earlier this year, we announced investment in our Dahlewitz site and today marks an important milestone on that journey as we see the first Trent 1000 arriving for MRO.
“New orders and increasing flying hours, on top of a strong existing fleet performance, mean that demand for shop visits will increase. So, just as we are planning for progress with our products, we are also seeing investment in our global Trent support network. This is further proof of our commitment to deliver both excellent products and services to our global customer base.”
Around half of the investment, and about one third of the 300 jobs created will be in Dahlewitz. Existing test capability in the facility will, in the short-term, focus on the Trent 1000 engine, providing additional capacity to the global network and enabling the introduction of next year’s Durability Enhancement package. The longer-term forecast is that the facility will transition to assemble and test new Trent XWB-84 engines in the future.
Already in service and performing well on the Trent 7000 engine, the Durability Enhancement package, which is part of a previously announced £1 billion (US$1.3 billion) investment in the Trent fleet, will more than double engine time on-wing. A second package of hot-section enhancements, available in 2026, will deliver a further improvement of up to 30%.
Jörg Steinbach, Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Energy, State of Brandenburg in Germany said, “This is an important step towards the future positive development of the Rolls-Royce site in Brandenburg. The fact that modern large engines for long-haul jets will be assembled and serviced here in Dahlewitz in the future, in addition to the proven engines for business jets, is a vote of confidence. The portfolio expansion strengthens the location’s competitiveness and future viability.”
