Gulf Air signs $900m deal for Rolls-Royce engines

Bahraini national carrier Gulf Air has awarded a $900m contract to Rolls-Royce for Trent 1000 engines to power 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, along with service support.

The carrier also has the option to purchase the same engine to power a further six of its 787-9s.

The deal follows recent wide-body orders by the carrier designed to meet its expansion plans.

Gulf Air previously selected Rolls-Royce’s Trent 700 engine to power its current wide body 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,” said Gulf Air chief executive Maher Salman Al Musallam.
Rolls-Royce civil aerospace president

Eric Schulz said the engine had won more than 60 per cent of competitions in the last six years.

In January, Gulf Air announced orders for 45 aircraft in total with deliveries commencing from Q2 2018.

The company recently announced an improvement in its financial performance with a loss of BHD 24.1m ($63.8m) in 2015, compared to BHD 62.7m ($166.1m) in 2014.

Read: Gulf Air’s losses narrow to BHD24.1m