Rolls Royce shares were up after the company unveiled a $1.2 billion service contract with Emirates Airlines. Shares in the company rose 2.8% yesterday to close at 615.5 pence ($9.71) on the London Stock Exchange. The shares are now down 5.9% since the Qantas incident, Rolls is close to half way back to its pre-Qantas incident share price. Emirates’s chief executive expressed support for the company in a statement on the carrier’s deal for Rolls-Royce to provide long term services support for Trent 700 engines powering 29 Airbus A330 aircraft and Trent 800 engines powering 21 Boeing 777 aircraft.
“These agreements will extend the business relationship and strengthen the partnership between the two companies,” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said. “This will also provide a better platform for effective management of engine life cycle costs and enhanced engine reliability.”
The Middle Eastern airline has 14 A380s in service, but uses engines supplied by Rolls-Royce’s rival Pratt & Whitney for those aircraft.