ROLLS-Royce’s East Lancashire plant is set to benefit after the aerospace firm signed a bumper £1.2billion deal with United Airlines.
Rolls’ Barnoldswick site will manufacture the fan blades for the Trent XWB Engines for 25 Airbus A350s of the US airline.
The company, one of the world’s leading makers of jet engines, hopes the deal will increase its presence in the US, where rival General Electric supplies aircraft.
The announcement comes after Rolls last month secured two contracts, worth £900million and £290million, to supply engines to power Airbus jets for Air China and Ethiopian Airlines. Jon Brough, Unite union leader at Barnoldswick, said the site has a large share in the manufacture of XWB engines and the deal was “good news”.
Mark King, president of Rolls-Royce’s civil aerospace division, added: “This represents a signif-icant endorsement of our Trent XWB technology and its operational advantage.”
The Airbus deal is a welcome boost for staff at Barnoldswick as they anxiously await a £35million investment programme. Last month, union bosses said they feared the cash injection at the site, including new jobs and new machinery, was under threat because of a stand-off with bosses in a row over changes in work arrangements.
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