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Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 XE
Rolls-Royce has been selected by South America-based LATAM Airlines to power three Boeing 787s with the engine maker’s upgraded Trent 1000 XE powerplant. This represents a small but potentially significant win in its battle to regain market share on the big twinjet.
Although Rolls-Royce initially powered LATAM’s 787 fleet, the carrier selected the competing GE Aerospace GEnx-1 for a follow-on 787 order in late 2023 after a series of long-running durability issues with the Trent 1000 Package C engines powering some of its aircraft.
LATAM, which ordered the GEnx-1 to power 16 787-9s, is one of several key Rolls-Royce operators that defected to GE in recent years because of the same problems. Other Trent-powered 787 carriers that have made the switch include All Nippon Airways, Air New Zealand and British Airways. The firm order backlog of Trent-powered 787s has meanwhile gradually dwindled to around 20%.
The LATAM turnaround is therefore all the more significant given GE’s overall dominance of the 787 market over recent years. Boasting a 99%-win rate on new orders since 2023, the U.S. engine maker continued the trend earlier this year, winning large GEnx-1 deals with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in January and February, respectively.
In response to the issues, however, Rolls-Royce has invested heavily in a two-phase Trent 1000 durability enhancement program, the core of which is an upgraded high-pressure turbine with more than double the time-on-wing of previous engines. Packaged as the Trent 1000 XE, the core changes leveraged similar improvements to the Trent 7000 upgrade powering the Airbus A330neo, which Rolls-Royce says has already accumulated more than two million flying hours.
In associated moves to help win back market share and rebuild its reputation, Rolls-Royce has also invested in expanding MRO capacity in Germany, Singapore and the UK to expedite upgrades to existing Trent 1000 TEN standard engines with the new features. The engine maker is expected to transition the entire Trent TEN fleet to the XE standard by the end of 2027.
Commenting on the LATAM win, Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic said, “this order demonstrates growing market confidence in the Trent 1000 XE and reflects the benefits that our ongoing transformation is delivering.”
Speaking in November 2025 shortly after the debut of the Trent 1000 XE on a newly delivered 787-9 for Lufthansa, Rob Watson, president of Rolls-Royce’s Civil Aerospace division said, “We’ve been very clear: We want to build our market share. We work very closely with Boeing and the team in Charleston, and we are really looking forward to getting some campaign wins under our belt and building market share for the Trent 1000.”
According to Aviation Week’s Fleet Discovery database, LATAM operates 37 Trent-powered 787s, 10 of which are 787-8s and the remainder 787-9s.
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