Still No Winners for Baseline Values in A380 Engine Stakes

The decision by International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) to order the Engine Alliance powerplant for its four firm A380 orders provides a boost for the U.S. engine on the new Airbus aircraft, splitting the honors between the two types and for the time being preventing any distinction in value emerging. With the General Electric-Pratt & Whitney GP7200 having secured now 46 orders from four customers and Rolls-Royce 43 also from four customers, the competition is still sufficiently evenly balanced to assign similar values to both airframe/engine combinations. However, with some 116 firm orders, 27 A380 aircraft have yet to have an engine defined, including six from ILFC. Rolls-Royce had previously indicated that ILFC had ordered the Trent 900 for some of its A380s. Though service entry of the A380 is slated for 2006, the first deliveries of major components has just commenced with Italian company Aeronautica/Finmeccanica starting the transportation of a major part of the central fuselage to Airbus.