Potential Rolls-Royce Job Losses

Between 4,000 and 5,000 jobs at Rolls-Royce on the line due to engine issues

Over 4,000 job losses at the company may be announced by CEO Warren East when he updates City analysts on Rolls-Royce fortunes this Friday. Their manufacturing base in Derby is expected to take most of the hit, with back-office staff and management targeted as opposed to frontline engineers.

Although Rolls-Royce has declined to deny or confirm such reports of cuts to staff, they issued a statement on Monday regarding issues with their Trent 1000 engine. Airlines operating Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircrafts have reported problems with the Trent 1000’s intermediate pressure compressor (IPC). Rolls-Royce has recently discovered problems similar to this with 166 ‘Package B’ engines. Making 549 the total number of affected engines with further inspections and resolution costs amounting to approximately £1bn.

A redesigned Package C IPC has already been run succesfullyin a development engine. Also a design solution is in progress for the Package B engine. Rolls are also in the process of testing potential issues with the Trent 1000 TEN engine despite no issues being found so far.

“We are working closely with our customers to minimise any operational impact of these inspections and we deeply appreciate their continued co-operation,” said Chris Cholerton, president of Civil Aerospace at Rolls-Royce. “We remain absolutely committed to eliminating this issue from the Trent 1000 fleet.” – Warren East, Rolls-Royce CEO

Aviation regulators are renowned for imposing limitations on engines and other parts that are prone to durability problems. In order to promote passenger and ground civilian safety some airlines are forced to alter their routes. Grounding and delays have also arisen as a result of timely inspection processes resulting in operators leasing aircraft to fill gaps.