China Southern has signed a letter of intent for engine maintenance services from Rolls Royce. The TotalCare service will apply to the carrier's 20 Airbus A350 aircraft. So far the Chinese carrier has received one of its A350 aircraft.

Rolls Royce's TotalCare package can almost be seen as an engine care subscription. Airlines pay a set amount per engine, and as a result, Rolls Royce carries all the costs associated with engine maintenance. China Southern is set to take advantage of this new program with the letter of intent announced earlier today.

What is TotalCare?

TotalCare is a long term service agreement that aircraft operators can purchase from Rolls Royce. The service essentially means that Rolls Royce will look after the engines of the aircraft for an agreed fee per engine flying hour. This means that China Southern will only pay when the engine is flying, and as such, it is in Rolls Royce's interests to keep the engine in service. If anything goes wrong with the engine, sensors will likely alert Rolls Royce staff before China Southern even realises.

Rolls Royce has a network of spare parts and service providers located strategically across the globe. In fact, Rolls Royce has a guaranteed 90 minutes response time to any location agreed as part of a TotalCare Agreement.

Rolls Royce Engine 25by2025
Airbus recently flew an Airbus A380 powered by Rolls Royce engines for three hours using SAF made from cooking oil. Photo: Rolls Royce

The British engine manufacturer has a 24/7 operations centre located in Derby. Any time that an engine issue is detected, Rolls Royce can straight away assign somebody to work to get the aircraft back in the air. If necessary, this can involve flying an engineer and a part to an aircraft which is on the ground.

According to Rolls Royce, "Fleets covered by TotalCare achieve better time-on-wing, and benefit from the Rolls-Royce CareNetwork, which ensures engine repair and overhaul services can be offered closer to our customers."

China Southern's Agreement

China Southern's letter of intent for a new TotalCare agreement with Rolls Royce will see Rolls Royce taking on engine maintenance, repair and overhaul responsibilities for the 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft ordered by China Southern. As of September 31st, the airline had taken delivery of just one of these aircraft.

China Southern, Rolls Royce, TotalCare
The agreement will apply to all 20 of China Southerns Airbus A350-900 orders. Photo: Airbus

Paul Freestone is the SVP of Customers for Rolls-Royce in Greater China. Talking about the letter of intent he commented:

“The selection of TotalCare by China Southern Airlines for its 20 new Trent XWB-powered A350s is testament to the strength of the relationship we have with one of China’s largest airlines. We look forward to continuing to work closely with the team at China Southern Airlines to deliver engine efficiency for the A350, enhanced by this dedicated long-term care agreement.”

What do you make of the letter of intent? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!