Rolls-Royce moves to placate airlines with Trent 1000 task force

Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has set up a task force to address maintenance issues with engines that power Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner jet after British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways said they had to cancel some routes because of a lack of planes. The group will bring together employees from operations, supply chain, engineering, technology and planning teams to speed up maintenance on the Trent 1000 model, Rolls-Royce said in an email Monday. The company will also increase investment in maintenance and repair facilities to create short-term surge capacity, which it aims to then double by 2030. “We take the industry-wide issue that the aerospace supply chain is currently dealing with extremely seriously,” a Rolls-Royce spokesman said in the email. “We’ve introduced a number of initiatives to reduce the impact on our customers.” The British enginemaker has come under fire from British Airways and Virgin after both airlines said they’d scrap some routes next summer due to a shortage of aircraft caused by 787 maintenance. Virgin said it would delay the restart of services to Tel Aviv and a new route to Ghana, while BA will remove Bahrain and Kuwait from its schedule. <br/>