The Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine has received certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to power the new Airbus BelugaXL air transporter (www.airbus.com), marking another milestone for an engine that has been a leading member of the Trent family for almost 25 years.

The Trent 700 has established itself as the engine of choice for the Airbus A330 (the basis of the BelugaXL design), having achieved a 90% market share over the last four years.

Adair Swan, Rolls-Royce Trent 700 programme director (civil aerospace) (www.rolls-royce.com), said: “Certification marks another milestone in an incredible Trent 700 journey that is an integral part of the Trent success story.

“We are very proud that the Trent 700 will power what will be a deeply loved aircraft, delivering parts to Airbus’s assembly lines across Europe.”

The Trent 700, which first entered service in 1995, has now clocked up more than 50 million engine flying hours.

More than 2,000 Trent 700s have been delivered, making it Rolls-Royce’s best-selling engine and helping the company to increase its wide-body market share from 13% in 1995 to nearly 50% today.

The Trent 7000 engine that powers the Airbus A330neo aircraft is the seventh member of the Trent family; it incorporates the latest technology from the Trent XWB — “the world’s most-efficient large civil engine”.

Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce has announced plans to expand its global network of engine overhaul services to support growth in its fleet of large aero engines.

Rolls-Royce said that with the company’s fleet of in-service engines forecast to grow from more than 4,000 today to about 6,500 “in the mid-term — and even further beyond that — we expect demand for overhaul services to increase over the coming years.

This planned expansion comes as the long-term focus of our business moves towards managing the after-market potential of our fleet of wide-body aircraft engines, following successful expansion over many years.

This further expansion of our network of engine overhaul facilities also underpins our commitment to reducing the impact on customers of in-service issues with the Trent 1000.

“In Germany, part of the Rolls-Royce Deutschland site in Dahlewitz will transition into an overhaul services hub with the capability of handling wide-body engine overhauls.

"Our site in Montreal, which currently services business jet engines, will also be re-purposed to become a wide-body engine overhaul facility.

"These moves come in addition to on-going investment in the UK, where our Derby site will become an engine overhaul Centre of Excellence.”