Nadia Farha Mubin
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have confirmed further schedule changes due to delays in the delivery of parts of engines that are used to power certain long-haul aircraft.
Since Rolls-Royce was facing issues with engine maintenance, which affected the performance of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, both airlines have decided to make changes to their flight schedules.
According to reports, British Airways has withdrawn flights to Dallas-Fort Worth for summer 2025 and reduced frequency to Miami, with transatlantic partner American Airlines taking on the services.
A spokesperson said, “We’re disappointed that we’ve had to make further changes to our schedule as we continue to experience delays to the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce, particularly concerning the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines fitted to our 787 aircraft.
“We’ve taken this action because we do not believe the issue will be solved quickly, and we want to offer our customers the certainty they deserve for their travel plans.
“We’ve apologised to those affected and are able to offer the vast majority a flight the same day with British Airways or one of our partner airlines.
“We continue to work closely with Rolls-Royce to ensure the company is aware of the impact its issues are having on our schedule and customers, and seek reassurance of a prompt and reliable solution.”
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said, “We have taken the difficult decision to delay the restart of our service to Tel Aviv into the winter 2025 season, and our new service to Accra will also be delayed into the winter 2025 season.
“It’s been necessary to make these changes due to the reduced availability of Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines, which are fitted to our Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
“Our teams are working closely with our partners at Rolls-Royce on solutions to minimise disruption to our flying program.
“We’d like to apologise to affected customers and will be in contact with them from Monday 11th November to discuss their options, which include rebooking travel with an alternative carrier, moving to a different date, or receiving a refund.”
To speed up the delivery of spare parts, Rolls-Royce has moved to embed 50 staff within major suppliers.
A spokesperson told a news portal, “Given the impact created by the current supply chain constraints, it is one of our top priorities.
“We have created an internal Trent 1000 task force, drawing on our world-class engineering and technology capability. The task force brings together people from across our operations, supply chain, engineering, technology, safety, and planning teams.”
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