Industry FAA lowers ETOPS Limits on Trent 1000 C engines

The aircraft are not allowed to fly on extended operations (ETOPS) when the aircraft is longer than 140 minutes of flight time away from the closest diversion airport. Normally, the engines can be operated under the 330-minute-ETOPS rule.

About 25 percent of the 787 Dreamliner fleet is powered by this Rolls-Royce engine variant. Rolls-Royce stated, that the Trent 1000 “B” and Trent 1000 “TEN” are not impacted by the regulations.

Boeing said in a statement: “An existing EASA Airworthiness Directive for the Package C engine requires inspections of an intermediate pressure compressor blade at certain flight cycles. If a durability issue is found, the blade will be replaced. This is a known issue and we will continue to work with Rolls-Royce, our customers and the regulators to fully resolve it. Boeing is deploying support teams to mitigate service disruption.”

Warren East, CEO, Rolls-Royce, said: “Our focus is on supporting our customers and doing all we can to minimise any impact on their operations. We sincerely regret the disruption this will cause to our customers and our team of technical experts and service engineers is working around the clock to ensure we return them to full service as soon as possible. We will be working closely with Boeing and affected airlines to minimise disruption wherever possible.”

The airworthiness directive will affect following airlines: Thai Airways, Air New Zealand, Norwegian, ANA All Nippon Airways, British Airways and Virgin. These airlines have to partly change their route-planning.