Tim Clark hits a nerve with critical comments on Rolls-Royce XWB-97

Emirates President Sir Tim Clark caused a behind-the-scenes stir at the Dubai Airshow on Tuesday, commenting that his airline will not order the Airbus A350-1000 until Rolls-Royce improves the durability of the Trent XWB-97 engines. 

Clark made his comments during a media roundtable. According to Bloomberg, he criticized the limited time on wing between inspections of the XWB-97. The engine is what Clark called “defective”, as it can only do a quarter of the 2.000 to 2.500 flight cycles before it needs inspections for tear and wear on internal components. Unless a fix is found, this makes the engine unattractive and expensive to operate, increasing unit costs and reducing unit margins. With the XWB-97 as the exclusive powerplant

on the A350-1000, airlines have no other options available.

It is not the first time Tim Clark is critical of Rolls-Royce and the XWB. He made identical remarks during earlier media round tables, which he uses as platforms to discuss current topics. Except for the XWB issues, he criticized the Trent 900 on the Airbus A380 for not being able to withstand the hot and sandy environment in the Middle East. Rolls-Royce originally planned extensive redesigns of internal parts but dropped the idea as this would be more expensive than bringing in the engines for maintenance and repairs.