The Trent 1000 durability issues—as discussed on this week's MRO Podcast—have been well documented over recent years, and Rolls-Royce has been working to resolve them. Rolls-Royce has a possible fix in progress—however, certification still needs to be achieved, currently penciled in for 2024. But testing of those engines on a 787 testbed is not the highest priority on Boeing’s to-do list, given the OEM's laundry list of other issues.
Pre-pandemic, the Trent-powered 787s were on the ground for a little over one-fifth of each month, compared to around 15% of the month for GEnx-powered aircraft. After the collapse of long-haul travel as a result of the pandemic, it is no surprise that the amount of time spent on the ground increased.
During the pandemic, Rolls-Royce invested its efforts into rectifying those engines on wing to help resolve some of the immediate, then-near-term, issues, providing it with some breathing room.
Post-pandemic, the data shows that those operators who had GEnx-powered 787s returned to flying more—faster. The GEnx as of June 2024 has a touch over 11% non-flying days, which is better than pre-pandemic levels. Non-flying days can be for several reasons—not necessarily an aircraft-on-ground event.
The Trent-powered 787s have returned to around one-fifth of the month with non-flying days, but with supply chain issues, a workforce shortage and engine shop space at a premium, the continued durability issues could increase the non-flying days.
This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.
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