Sanad locks in Trent 700 MRO volumes through 2031: Mubadala-owned maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) outfit Sanad has expanded its long-running partnership with the UK-based Rolls-Royce for the Trent 700 jet engine, committing a workload of up to 612 shop visits through 2031 — up from 277.

To get there, Sanad plans to invest AED 125 mn in new equipment and operating systems, as well as in automation and new hiring.

The market outlook

The Trent 700 is Rolls-Royce’s most popular engine option for the Airbus A330ceo family, with over 50% of the current fleet being fitted with the engine (around 1.4k active engines). Other engine options for the A330ceo are provided by Pratt & Whitney and GE Aerospace.

The Trent 700 won’t be on the market for long: Rolls-Royce plans to cease production of the Trent 700 within the next 2-3 years to shift resources to the new Trent 7000 engine, according to a Rolls-Royce infosheet (pdf). This comes after Airbus ceased production of the A330ceo a few years back, paving the way for the A330neo, which will be fitted exclusively with the Trent 7000.

Still, demand for the Trent 700 MRO services is here to stay for up to two more decades, as half of the current fleet of the A330ceos — which boasts a 20- to 30-year lifespan — was reportedly built after 2010. The rising wave of passenger-to-freighter retrofits will also back the engine aftermarket durability, as some 85% of A330 conversions since 2017 are powered by the Trent 700, according to Rolls-Royce.

A regional case in point: Saudia renewed its Rolls-Royce TotalCare coverage to keep all 31 of its A330 aircraft covered beyond 2030, and Oman Air also inked an engine MRO contract with the engine maker, covering eight Trent 700-powered A330 aircraft.

Background

Capacity is the constraint: The engines’ MRO market is hot now because shop slots are becoming harder to secure as continued jet delivery delays extend the operational lifetime of current fleets. The short supply of MRO capacity, coupled with rising demand for engine shop visits due to aging fleets, has also been pushing up airline costs due to increased grounding time and higher fuel consumption, according to a KPMG aviation report (pdf).

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