Rolls seals £3.2bn deal to supply BA engines

Rolls-Royce has signed a £3.2 billion deal to supply British Airways with engines for up to 61 aircraft, in the first sale of its Trent 900 engine since one exploded in mid-air on a Qantas flight last year.

The Derby-based manufacturing giant will provide the airline with Trent 900s for 12 Airbus A380 planes and Trent 1000 engines to power 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

It comes as Rolls looks to allay safety fears about the Trent 900 after the explosion which forced the Australian carrier to ground its fleet of A380 superjumbos.

Rolls said after the incident it had isolated the cause of the failure to a specific component in the turbine of the engine, which sparked an oil fire and led to the release of another part - a turbine disc.

The deal, which was first announced in 2007, will see Rolls service the engines after they are fitted and includes the option to provide several more engines.

Rolls chief executive Sir John Rose said: "We are pleased that British Airways continues to put its trust in our world class Trent engine technology and service provision."

The manufacturer recently signed two contracts to supply engines to Chinese air carriers.

In November it won a 1.8 billion US dollar (£1.1 billion) order from Air China for engines to supply and service 20 engines for 10 Airbus A350s and 10 A330s, a fortnight after an order worth 1.2 billion US dollars (£750 million) from China Eastern Airlines.