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Speaking a day after placing a $50 billion order for Boeing 777X jets, the president of the Dubai airline, Tim Clark, said the A350-1000’s engine would offer only a quarter of the time between maintenance visits compared to Emirates’ needs.

He told reporters Emirates would be prepared to order between 35 and 50 of the jets if Rolls-Royce improved both the durability and maintenance costs.

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Rolls-Royce said: “Emirates is a valued customer and we look forward to supporting their future fleet growth plans.”

While airplane orders dominate headlines at air shows, airlines typically negotiate to buy the airplane and long-term repair services from the engine suppliers separately, meaning big-ticket plane announcements can hinge on unseen engine talks.

Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer defended Rolls-Royce’s Trent XWB-97 engine.

“It’s a perfectly fine engine operated by many customers around the world. Tim does not operate it,” he said while announcing an order from Egyptair for 10 smaller A350-900s.

Emirates has ordered 50 of the A350-900 version, which uses a different Rolls variant, but has yet to take deliveries.

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Reuters reported on Monday that an order from Emirates for the largest version of the A350 appeared to be on hold over terms of engine guarantees with Rolls-Royce.

It is the latest example of disagreements in aerospace over the performance designed to save fuel at the expense of ever-hotter internal temperatures that require more maintenance.

Engines face particular challenges in hot and sandy or dusty conditions like the Middle East and India.

Emirates’s order for 90 more GE-powered Boeing 777X jets dominated the opening of the week-long Dubai Airshow on Monday.

With plans for an Emirates A350 order off the table for now, Airbus also saw a second major order from Turkish Airlines (THY) slip off the show’s agenda, industry sources said.

Airbus said on Monday it had reached agreement “in principle” on a significant THY order.

But it added the deal needed to be ratified in the coming days, in what sources saw as a sign it would need Turkish government approval and was unlikely to appear at the show.

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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

Updated: 14 Nov 2023, 02:41 PM IST