Emirates Signs USD$1.5 Billion Engine Deal

[Jopa]

<a href="http://news.airwise.com/display/story.html?name=2002/02/1014897677.html" target="_blank">http://news.airwise.com /display/story.html?name=2002/02/1014897677.html</a>

Feb 28, 2002

Middle East airline Emirates has signed a USD$1.5 billion deal with Engine Alliance to power its fleet of super jumbo A380 aircraft.

The Alliance, a partnership between engine makers General Electric and Pratt and Whitney, will provide its GP7000 family of power units for the 22 aircraft Emirates has on firm order.

The deal will be a blow to Rolls Royce who are bidding to win a share of the engine market for the worlds' biggest passenger jet. This latest Alliance success means it is leading the field in the race to power the A380 with 32 aircraft now committed to the GP7000.

Emirates, a launch customer for the Airbus giant, has also taken options on another 10 planes, the first of which are due for delivery in September 2006.

After signing the memorandum of understanding with Engine Alliance today, Emirates chairman, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said: "As Emirates grows to become a truly global airline, we need an engine to power our future A380 flagship over the world's biggest air routes. After exceptionally exhaustive studies of the various engines on offer, we have selected the Engine Alliance GP7000 as the one best suited to our present and future network.

"The GP7000... is the best deal for Emirates - technically, operationally and commercially."

The Dubai-based carrier was the first to place firm orders for the A380. The airline now becomes the second customer for the GP7000 family, following Air France's launch order for 10 aircraft in May 2001.

Last November, Emirates unveiled a USD$15 billion fleet expansion which, in addition to the A380s, includes 22 new Boeing 777s, eight A340-600s and three A330s - a total of 58 aircraft.

Also,

<a href="http://www.flightdailynews.com/singapore2002/mar1/airtransport/emirates.shtm" target="_blank">http://www.flightdailynews.com/singapore2002/mar1/airtransport/emirates.shtm</a>

[ 28 February 2002: Message edited by: Jopa ]</p>

[newswatcher]

Assuming that the same level of expertise is applied to engine choice across airlines, it is strange that only Emirates and Air France have gone for the GP7xxx series whilst Singapore, Virgin Atlantic, Qantas and Qatar(yes really!) have selected the Rolls Trent 900.

<img src="confused.gif" border="0"> <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[Flip Flop Flyer]

Typical journo work: incomplete and inaccurate

"The deal will be a blow to Rolls Royce who are bidding to win a share of the engine market for the worlds' biggest passenger jet. This latest Alliance success means it is leading the field in the race to power the A380 with 32 aircraft now committed to the GP7000."

Mind you the RR engine will be the motor powering the first aircraft, and up until the Mrats order RR was leading the order book over the GP engine.. .I am not bashing the GP, just the journo. I would have said "RR is bidding to win the majority of orders, and had so far been leading the race". . .Still quite a blow to RR, since as far as I know the rest of the Mrats 330/777 fleet is RR Trent powered. But not putting all eggs in one basket is perhaps the flavour of the day ?

And on a related note: Brand new aircraft + brand new engine ... hope they test it throughly "on the line", as any significant technical delays once in service, will have a major impact and could very well result in yet more journo crap.

[Nigel PAX]

One suspects if the comment shouldn't have been:. ."The GP7000... is the best deal for Emirates - politically, technically, operationally and commercially."

[crab]

I wonder if the GE/Pratt consortium have offered any unpublished incentives to secure this contract.I understand that BA now think the Trent would have been a better 777 engine but their choice was partly influenced by offloading the South Wales engine overhaul facility to GE.I`m sure someone will correct me if I`m wrong but this choice for the 777 did have an adverse effect on Trent sales at the time.

[Algy]

Hi Flip Flop,

so not incomplete or innaccurate then, just different from how you would have done it. Given your standard of argument I'd definitely stick to your stated interests - less challenging.