While supply-chain issues dragged engine deliveries down last year, Rolls-Royce’s financial performance in civil aerospace reflected a strong large-engine aftermarket, contractual margin improvements, and higher spare-engine profitability.

The manufacturer handed over 259 Trent engines, down from 278 last year, and lower than the 262 achieve in 2023.

This dip spanned almost the entire Trent range. While deliveries of XWB-97 engines were slightly higher, those for the XWB-84 and the Trent 1000 and 7000 all fell.

Rolls-Royce says the deliveries are “aligned to airframer production schedules”, and that these reflect the impact of supply-chain issues across the industry.

The overall figure includes a “slightly lower” number of spare powerplants, it points out, and Rolls-Royce also took orders for 638 large engines, up nearly 30%.

Higher shop visits contributed to a 21% rise in underlying service revenues to £7.2 billion, while original equipment revenues increased by 3% to £3.2 billion – giving a total of £10.4 billion ($14 billion) for civil aerospace, up 15%.

Large-engine major shop visits increased to 517 against the previous 430, including a “step-up” in Trent 1000 visits in the second half of the year, says the company.

The civil aerospace division’s underlying operating profit reached £2.1 billion, higher than the £1.5 billion of the previous year, and representing a stronger margin of 20.5%.

Rolls-Royce is aiming for a higher margin of 21-23% in the medium term.

It justifies this target through forecasts of higher operating profits, driven by factors including a strong widebody aftermarket, and improved widebody equipment profitability as Trent XWB installed engine deliveries become “break-even or positive” through “commercial optimisation and efficiency actions”.

The company expects 550-600 engine deliveries – including those for business aviation – this year, compared with last year’s total of 483. Total shop visits will be around 1,480-1,550 against 1,440 in 2025.

Rolls-Royce expects shop visits to drop back to 1,300-1,400 by 2028 as its time-on-wing initiatives generate durability benefits, while engine deliveries will increase to 650-750.