Turnaround: Rolls-Royce revenues set for record highs under boss Tufan Erginbilgic

Firm raked in £7.7billion in first six months of the year according to City forecasts

Aeroplane engine maker boosted by rise in international flights post-Covid

Rolls-Royce’s revenues are expected to hit record highs in another boost for chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic’s ambitious turnaround plan.

The FTSE 100 aeroplane engine maker raked in £7.7billion in the first six months of the year, according to City forecasts.

The 11 per cent hike in sales came as international flights rose back to pre-Covid levels.

Rolls builds plane engines but makes its money from servicing and maintaining them, so the number of flying hours is crucial to its success.

It has also won a slew of new contracts, including with Indian airline IndiGo, which ordered 60 engines, and VietJet.

Demand for its power generators from data centres and artificial intelligence providers has also spiked

This is expected to be a growing area for Rolls.

The company is also well-placed to benefit from demand for mini nuclear power stations, known as small modular reactors (SMRs)

Rolls has spent years designing a model based on the technology it uses to power nuclear submarines. It is one of the companies being considered by the Government to build a fleet of SMRs for Britain and its designs are being looked at by several other European countries.

Erginbilgic has implemented a strict cost-cutting programme – which is expected to slash spending by £200million a year by the end of 2025 – and has paid down some of Rolls’ substantial debt pile.

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Rolls-Royce roars back into fast-growing short-haul aircraft market

Erginbilgic joined at the start of 2023 when the company was still struggling to recover from the pandemic – Rolls racked up mammoth losses as planes were grounded.

But it had been underperforming for years and was already in the middle of an overhaul when Covid struck.

When Erginbilgic joined he was quick to describe Rolls as a ‘burning platform’ – but his plans have been supported by the market and shares have risen by 375 per cent since he took over 19 months ago.

This year alone they have risen by almost 50 per cent.

A boom in defence spending due to the war in Ukraine, which began in 2022, has also helped to boost Rolls’ share price.

Rolls-Royce has taken a major step in its return to the market for short-haul aircraft by beginning work on a smaller version of its new Ultrafan engine.

Boss Tufan Erginbilgic said the company was working on a ‘demonstrator’ of the engine at its main headquarters in Derby – alongside the larger version designed for long-haul planes.

The move signals Rolls- Royce’s return to the fastgrowing market for ‘narrowbody’ aircraft used by the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet for shorter international flights or domestic routes.

Erginbilgic’s comments came during a wide-ranging briefing at Farnborough Air Show in which he also said delays over the future of Britain’s fighter jet programme were not helpful.