Rolls Royce engines to power Virgin Dreamliners

Virgin Atlantic has selected Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines to power its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft fleet. The £1.3 billion deal, announced by Virgin Chairman Richard Branson in New York, includes 15 sets of installed Derby-built engines which will be delivered in 2011. Virgin currently uses General Electric engines on its Boeing 747 jumbos, so this is a big win for the UK engine maker.

Branson said the Rolls Royce engines would help cut emissions by nearly 30% per flight, which equates to an equivalent reduction in carbon emissions per passenger.

Virgin has 15 firm orders for 787s, worth £1.4 billion, plus further eight options and 20 purchase rights. Deliveries are due from 2011, but may be delayed as Boeing struggles to put the first few 787s together for test flights.

Boeing receives the largest 787 Dreamliner order for Latin America

The Boeing Company announced Monday that Chile's LAN Airlines has ordered 32 Dreamliners, marking the largest 787 acquisition to date for Latin America. The press-release informs that the Santiago-based LAN will buy 26 Dreamliners worth $4.5 billion (£2.2 billion), and will lease an additional six from International Lease Finance Corp.

So far, two other Latin American airlines have committed to the Boeing’s Dreamliner – Aeromexico, with two purchased and three leased, and Columbia’s Avianca, which has ordered 10.

Boeing said last month it would delay the launch of its first 787 Dreamliner by six months to late 2008 because of assembly problems. Thus far, Boeing has received a total of 736 orders for the new aircraft from 51 airlines worldwide.