Business is surging for Rolls-Royce as airlines step up their widebody fleet expansions and replacements, Ewen McDonald, chief customer officer of civil aviation for the engine maker, told AIN during the Dubai Airshow.
“I've been in the business for 30 years and I've never seen the amount of demand now for widebody,” McDonald said. “There was a high demand for narrowbody 12 months ago, but the market is really hot for widebody.”
McDonald pointed to an imbalance of supply and demand as driving the heated market, as well as airline sustainability targets. “The quickest way for them to achieve these targets is by buying new aircraft, much more fuel-efficient aircraft,” he said.
The sales activity is particularly notable given its occurrence outside the launch of a new aircraft, he added: “Generally, when a new aircraft is announced, lots of orders [are also announced]. But being outside of a new aircraft, I've never seen the demand.”
As for keeping up with demand, McDonald feels comfortable with the company’s capacity for now. He acknowledged supply chain challenges have affected Rolls but not to the extent others have experienced. “We are not immune to that impact, [but]I don’t think we’re impacted as badly as some other people are,” he explained.
McDonald further noted OEMs use many common suppliers. "We fight every day to try to make sure it doesn't have a big impact on our customers,” he stressed. At the same time though, Rolls-Royce hasn’t had to manage the volume of deliveries in the widebody space as others involved with narrowbodies. “Maybe that helps us to some extent,” he conceded.
McDonald noted the rates boost announced by Airbus—A330 rate will increase to four a month beginning next year and the A350 to 10 a month by 2026. The Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 powers the A330neo and the Trent XWB the A350.
“[However], we're not even reaching pre-Covid levels of deliveries," he said. "Some of the increases which you've seen in the narrowbody have been much greater.”
Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce has received substantial interest in its UltraFan technology demonstrator, which this month ran to maximum power on its testbed in Derby, UK, using 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel.
Rolls-Royce looks to the advances in the UltraFan—which it expects to bring a 10 percent efficiency improvement over the Trent XWB and a 25 percent gain over the launch of the first Trent—as playing a key part in the sustainability equation for aircraft produced in the 2030s.
Testing began earlier this year and gradually increased to full power. That milestone culminated years of research and collaboration through the UK government and the EU’s Clean Sky programs. Unveiled in 2014, the UltraFan technology demonstrator is designed to test scalable technologies from 25,000 to 110,000 pounds thrust, covering both narrowbody and widebody aircraft. “We are making sure that we are prepared for whatever the next airframe is, be it narrowbody and or be it widebody,” McDonald said. “We're talking to all the at the moment. We feel that they are really excited by the milestone.”