Emirates has decided against purchasing more Airbus’ A350-1000 jets until concerns regarding engine performance are fixed, Bloomberg reported, citing the airline’s president, Tim Clark.

The Rolls Royce Holdings-built engine doesn’t meet the requirements in terms of time on the wing until the next maintenance cycle, the report said.

“If they can do that at a maintenance cost per hour, that’s alright for us; then Emirates would order the aircraft,” Clark said, adding, “But it’s not doing that at the moment.”

The Dubai-based airline is unwilling to compromise by accepting a lower price, given that buying an aircraft that doesn’t perform as desired makes no sense, the report said, citing Clark.  

Emirates has an existing order book of 50 units of A350 and expects to add another 35 to 50 jets, Clark added.

However, European planemaker Airbus’ sales chief Christian Scherer defended the A350 engine, stating that it is “perfectly fine” and customers are flocking to the model, Bloomberg reported.
 
The A350-1000 has had a “very strong” year, picking up an “unprecedented” amount of orders, the report noted.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com )