Virgin hands NYC flight to Delta as Boeing 787s need engine fix

Bloomberg

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. has transferred one of its daily trans-Atlantic flights to US ally Delta Air Lines Inc. so that some of its own Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner planes can be grounded for an engine fix.
Delta took over the London Heathrow-New York John F. Kennedy International service and will operate it until October 31 using older Boeing 767s and possibly 777s. That will allow the Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc Trent 1000 turbines that power Virgin’s Dreamliners to receive attention, according to Craig Kreeger, the UK carrier’s chief executive officer.
“It’s a substitution that gives us a little bit more resilience as we’ve had some parts issues with our 787 engines,” Kreeger said. “This ensures that we’ll have sufficient capacity. It’s circumstantial, it’s not a strategy.”
Rolls-Royce said that as many as 500 Trent 1000s would need earlier-than-expected maintenance because of wear issues affecting the fan blades. The problem was first identified last year when ANA Holdings Inc., the 787’s launch customer, reported turbine damage on three planes. Virgin operates 13 787s out of an order for 17, and also took some out of service in April.
“We have a clear service management plan in place with all operators to undertake this work and minimise disruption,” Rolls-Royce said, adding that the interval for the work will be kept “as short as possible.”
Not all Rolls-powered 787s will need early attention, the UK manufacturer said. Additional maintenance costs on the Trent 1000 were the biggest component of $78 million in technical costs that the company posted in the first half. Delta, which bought a 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic in 2012, said that such route changes “show the benefit of the Delta and Virgin Atlantic partnership and how we work together.”
Virgin said that starting next March it would take one of its partner’s UK-US flights, giving it six of eight daily services across the pair’s joint venture. Delta will meanwhile upgrade to Airbus SE A330s from 767s on routes between Heathrow and JFK, Atlanta and Detroit.