Airbus super-jumbo order cancellation hits Rolls-Royce - UPDATE

29th Jul 2014 11:40

Airbus has cancelled a $2bn order with a customer for six of its A380 super-jumbos, triggering the loss of a £351m contract for British jet engine maker Rolls-Royce.The European aircraft maker terminated an order for six Airbus A380 aircraft from Skymark Airlines after the Japanese budget carrier struggled to meet payments for the aircraft.Rolls-Royce was due to supply its Trent 900 engines for the aircraft together with an after-sales service package, which represented 0.5% of the UK group's order book of £71.4bn.The aircraft had been due for delivery between 2014 and 2015.Skymark said Airbus refused to consider reducing the number of jets or offering smaller ones, had asked it to affiliate to a major carrier in return for changing the contract and demanded a cancellation fee when it refused.Airbus said it had discussed the situation with Skymark but had terminated the contract when the carrier made it clear it was "not going to perform its contractual obligations".It is the second order blow received in the last few weeks by Airbus, which said in June that Emirates had ditched an order for 70 A350 wide-body jets.Shares in Airbus fell €0.22 to €43.80 at 16:48 in Paris while Rolls-Royce dropped 3p to 1051p at 15:54 in London. PW