Lufthansa Frustrated With Engines On 787

Lufthansa, an avid user of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, has become the latest airline to face challenges with its Rolls Royce engines on the series.

Rolls Royce has been front and centre for quite some time regarding the inability to complete maintenance for Trent 1000 engines on time.

Furthermore, durability issues have continued to creep up on airline customers and Rolls-Royce broadly, resulting in operational inefficiencies and impacts on the airlines affected.

Lufthansa utilizes the Boeing 787 for its long-haul flying, and now, following reporting from Aviation Week, it is considering a future without as heavy a reliance on Rolls Royce.

That future would look to leverage the ability offered to 787 customers to choose between GE and Rolls Royce, with Lufthansa eyeing GE.

If executed, the switch would see the airline essentially make follow-up 787 Dreamliner and prospective future orders powered by GE engines.

This power move follows Lufthansa’s frustrations with Rolls Royce over its inability to fundamentally keep to schedule and the impact this flag carrier then faces.

Rolls Royce has acknowledged the impact on airlines such as Lufthansa and is looking to address this by investing more resources into fixing the problems.

However, while Rolls Royce is the only one that produces the engine, obtaining spare parts and sticking to schedules isn’t down to just them.

Supply chains have been decimated in recent times, and companies like Rolls Royce are grappling with many difficulties that have a knock-on effect on their airline customers.

Airlines Frustrated With 787s

Ultimately, Lufthansa isn’t the only airline that has discussed its frustrations with Rolls Royce engines aboard the 787 Dreamliner.

Airlines around the world are similarly feeling the heat. While Lufthansa is reportedly looking elsewhere for future engine providers, others have made more short-term decisions.

U.K.-based British Airways announced it would cut routes across the 2024/25 winter schedule to cope with issues related to engine availability on the 787 series.

Meanwhile, Thai Airways equally expressed their frustrations with the lack of certainty related to ongoing maintenance for Rolls Royce engines equipped on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The Thailand-based airline said maintenance was taking up to four months and longer due to a lack of spare parts, spare engines, and other supplies, meaning the airline has had to ground aircraft and make necessary operational changes.

These are two of the more outspoken airlines in the last month, but they aren’t ultimately the only ones being impacted by such a thing.