PRESS: TUI Executive Says Engine Issues Contributed To Flight Delays

LONDON (Alliance News) - A senior TUI AG executive has partly blamed aircraft engine manufacturers for the "worst European flight delays on record this summer", the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

David Burling, chief executive officer of TUI's 150-strong airline unit, told FT that global aircraft deliveries were delayed in the summer months due engine problems like those manufactured by Rolls Royce Holdings PLC for Boeing Co.

However, TUI, which has 17,787 Dreamliners in its fleet, has not been affected by Rolls Royce's Trent 1000 issues as its planes have GE engines.

The manufacturing issues left airlines unable to hire the number of planes needed to maintain their schedules, the FT reported.

The newspaper citing Eurocontrol, which co-ordinates national air traffic control agencies, reported that there have been 16.9 million minutes of en route delays in the year so far, compared with 9.3 million minutes in all of 2017.

In August, Rolls Royce swung to an interim loss after issues with its Trent 1000 engines led to a GBP554 million exceptional charge. The Trent 1000 engines are currently being redesigned after experiencing issues which Rolls Royce said will cost "at least GBP1 billion" between 2018 and 2020.

TUI shares were trading down 0.2% at 1,388.50 pence while Rolls Royce shares were down 3.3% at 899.00p.

https://www.ft.com/content/dcdb94e0-cb9e-11e8-b276-b9069bde0956

Rolls-Royce