Rolls-Royce has been selected to provide engines to Virgin Atlantic.

In a deal worth around £1.3 billion, Rolls-Royce has been selected to power Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft.

The maintenance and production contract will include 15 sets of installed engines and four spare engines – of the 75,000lb thrust Trent 1000 engine – and options for a further 28 aircraft.

The Trent 1000 engine is the launch engine for all Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which will enter service in 2009 and which Virgin will take delivery of in 2011. Rolls-Royce has received around 700 orders from 23 customers for the engines – resulting in a market share of 42% on the Boeing 787.

The Boeing 787-9, powered by the Trent engines, is more fuel efficient and has a smaller “noise footprint” than the A340-300, which also makes up Virgin Atlantic’s fleet of aircraft. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic’s President, commented on the airline’s choice of the cleanest-possible engines: “Rolls-Royce engines will help us cut emissions per flight by nearly 30% as we pursue our goal to become the most sustainable airline in the world.

“Our new environmental partnership will also bring major benefits to the aviation industry, as we work together to deliver the most efficient engines in the sky and continuously improve the fuel burn of our fleet of aircraft.”

Rolls-Royce, which also powers Virgin Atlantic’s A340-600 fleet and has a broad customer base comprising, amongst others, more than 600 airlines, commented on the deal: “This is a vote of confidence in the Trent family by Virgin Atlantic, which has been a long-standing customer with Rolls-Royce.”

Virgin Atlantic recently became the world’s first airline to carry out a flight partially powered by biofuel. Click here to read more.