Emirates Snubs GE, Pratt & Whitney in $9.2 Billion Order

Prior to this order, Emirates had used only the GP7200 jet engine made by Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX). Engine Alliance has supplied engines for 59 of a total of 90 orders from Emirates for the super-jumbo planes.

The engines themselves have a list price of about $2.5 billion, although Emirates almost certainly will be paying less than that. The contract includes Rolls-Royce’s “Total Care” service and maintenance package for the engines.

Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates, said:

Rolls-Royce is a key partner for Emirates and we have been impressed with its commitment to continual improvements in the economic and operational performance of the Trent 900. These improvements have been decisive factors in our selection of the product for 50 of our A380s.

The A380 is a four-engine, dual-aisle plane that can carry up to 525 passengers in a three-class configuration or 544 in a four-class configuration on long-distance routes. If configured as a single economy-class plane, the A380 can hold 853 seats.

ALSO READ: Airbus, Boeing Plan to Make Flying Even More Uncomfortable

Last week Emirates announced that it would begin A380 service in December from Dubai to Copenhagen with a two-class (business and economy) capacity of 615 seats.

And this week at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, Airbus showed off a new 11-across seating arrangement for the economy cabin of the A380.