LOT Polish Airlines chooses Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 to power Boeing 787s

LOT Polish Airlines has become the first European customer, and the fourth worldwide, to choose the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine to power its Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

The deal, valued at $400 million, is for engines to power seven aircraft on firm order, plus a further two options and five purchase rights.

Rolls-Royce will be responsible for the maintenance of LOT’s Trent 1000s under a 15-year TotalCare services agreement.

LOT becomes the ninth airline in the Star Alliance grouping to select one or more versions of the Trent. The first of its 787s is scheduled for delivery in October 2008.

Marek Grabarek, LOT’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The decision to select Rolls-Royce was taken after an exhaustive evaluation. We decided the Trent 1000 represented the best all-round choice for our 787s because of its high efficiency levels and superior economics over the long-term operation of the fleet.”

Although this is the first time LOT has selected large turbofan engines from Rolls-Royce, the airline uses one of the company’s smaller powerplants, the AE 3007, on its fleet of 14 Embraer ERJ-145 regional jets.

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