Breaking silence: Major airlines challenge Rolls-Royce's engine maintenance delays
British Airways and Virgin face massive flight disruptions due to Rolls-Royce engine maintenance delays. The companies dispute highlights deeper issues in the iconic British manufacturerʼs operations
Tufan Erginbilgiç has been making waves at Rolls-Royce since early last year with his no-nonsense management style: his famous “burning platform“ speech showed everyone he meant business
The companys share price jumped from 93p to 570p in less than 2 years (which made investors super-happy) but now theres a big problem with British Airways that might slow down this success-story
BA is really mad about engine maintenance delays; they had to stop hundreds of flights this weekend because of issues with the Trent-1000 engines. Virgin Airlines is having the same trouble — its not looking good for the engine-maker
Weʼre yet to see anything from them that gives us any confidence that they understand just how damaging this issue is for us
The problems arent new — Rolls-Royce has been dealing with Trent-1000 troubles for about 10 years now. The company put together a special team (with 50 people working at supplier locations) to fix things; but BA doesnt think its enough
- Maintenance takes longer than before
- Parts are hard to get
- Airlines cant use backup planes anymore
- Most long-haul flights depend on these engines
Even though Erginbilgiç saved the company during covid times his fast-paced changes might not be enough to fix deeper problems. Rolls-Royce is still pretty old-school in how it works: being almost the only player in some markets means they dont have to change much — and thats part of the issue
