Derby's Rolls-Royce lands £570m China Southern engines deal

Derby aero engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce has secured a deal worth around £570 million to supply its technology to a Chinese airline.

The deal with China Southern will see the Rolls-Royce, which has its civil aerospace division at Sinfin, supply Trent 700 engines to power a fleet of 10 Airbus A330 aircraft. The deal also includes a TotalCare agreement, which will see Rolls-Royce maintain the engines throughout their service life.

The order was signed today at Zhuhai Airshow by Li Ming, vice-president of the maintenance and engineering department at China Southern, and Paul Hallam, Rolls-Royce's vice-president for Greater China (civil aerospace).

According to Rolls-Royce, the agreement confirms the Trent 700 as the "overwhelming engine of customer choice" in Greater China, with a market share of close to 90%. The signing was witnessed by Li Tongbin, China Southern's executive vice-president, China Southern, and Paul Freestone, Rolls-Royce's senior vice-president for customers (civil aerospace).

Mr Tongbin said: "We have been impressed with Rolls-Royce engine performance in service and look forward to further developing our relationship with this latest order. Rolls-Royce has an important role to play in supporting our fleet growth."

The airline, which is the largest in China, currently operates 14 A330s that are all powered by the Trent 700, five A380s powered by the Trent 900 and nine Boeing 757s powered by the RB211.

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