FARNBOROUGH: Airbus A350-1000 receives ETOPS 180 certification

According to type certificate documentation, Airbus received ETOPS 180 minute certification for the A350-1000 on the 6th of July – an increase from the originally certified amount of 120 minutes.

The A350-1000 was certified in November 2017 and the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engine that powers it was certified in August of the same year.

The European Aviation Safety Authority specifies a maximum diversion time of 420 minutes for the Trent XWB-97, including a 405 minute maximum continuous thrust time and a 15 minute hold thrust time.

It was October 15th, 2014 that the smaller A350-900 received ETOPS 370, allowing it to fly more than six hours on one engine. This made the aircraft to be the first ever approved for “ETOPS beyond 180” before entry into service.

The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB just recently achieved two million flight hours, just shortly after the manufacturer delivered the 500th of the type.

Trent XWB programme director, Gareth Davies, said in a statement:

“We have enjoyed the smoothest entry into service of any widebody engine and we continue to see the engine achieving market-leading levels of reliability.”

Statistics display that the engine has had zero inflight shutdowns and has a dispatch reliability of 99.9%.