Rolls-Royce boss urges Labour to back £3bn jet engine project
The chief executive of Rolls-Royce is lobbying ministers to support his company's £3bn jet engine project, saying it could be the 'the single biggest item for economic growth for the UK'.
Tufan Erginbilgic is pushing for the Government to back Rolls's plans to launch a range of engines for short-haul planes, a market it abandoned more than a decade ago.
He said the project could create 40,000 jobs in Britain and deliver a surge in exports.
Mr Erginbilgic is lobbying Labour to support the scheme as the Government prepares to launch its upcoming industrial strategy.
He said: 'Any country needs to support competitively advantaged industries. If you give some momentum that will create lots of export growth, and employment with that.'
Britain's biggest manufacturing company has stepped up talks with potential partners as it eyes a return to making engines for short-haul planes of the kind used by Ryanair and easyJet.
Speaking at the Paris Air Show, Mr Erginbilgic said: 'We are progressing. We would like to enter narrowbody, that's true, and it's even more true right now.
'Our preference is partnership. I can't go into details because of the confidentiality about these things, but we are talking to multiple parties.
'Do we have the technology, do we have the capability, do we have the opportunity? Yes, yes and yes.'
Rolls-Royce would seek government support in helping to fund the £3bn development cost of the engine. Mr Erginbilgic argued that General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, the other major player in the sector, get four or five times as much backing.
He said that support for the project would also deliver a huge boost to the economy. He said: 'It is that big. Think about that. If you pick economic growth in the UK, one item, this will be the number one.'
He added that the project could create more than 40,000 jobs across the supply chain.
Rolls, which has its main manufacturing plant in Derby, would use technology developed as part of its Ultrafan programme on the new engines. It would need to develop a reduced-thrust version of the Ultrafan, which was initially developed for larger, long-haul planes.
The 120-year-old company aims to develop the engines to coincide with the introduction of the next generation of the narrowbody planes from Airbus and Boeing in about a decade's time.
Mr Erginbilgic is eyeing new markets after piloting a stunning turnaround at Rolls-Royce. He told Rolls's 42,000 workers that they were on a 'burning platform' when he took over in 2023.
However, shares in the company have surged more than 700pc since Mr Erginbilgic, a former BP executive, took charge.
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