ROLLS-Royce has signed a £3.2bn deal to supply British Airways with engines for up to 61 aircraft in the first sale of its Trent 900 engine since one exploded in mid-air on a Qantas flight last year.

The Derby-based manufacturing giant, which has 400 workers at its Newcastle plant and 200 in Sunderland, will provide the airline with Trent 900s for 12 Airbus A380 planes and Trent 1000 engines to power 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The company said it was too early to say whether any work on the contract would come to the North East.

The deal was announced as Rolls looks to allay safety fears about the Trent 900 after the explosion which forced the Australian carrier to ground its fleet of A380 superjumbos.

Rolls said after the incident it had isolated the cause of the failure to a specific component in the turbine of the engine, which sparked an oil fire.

The deal, which was first announced in 2007, will see Rolls service the engines after they are fitted and includes the option to provide several more engines.

Rolls chief executive Sir John Rose said: “We are pleased that British Airways continues to put its trust in our world class Trent engine.”

The manufacturer recently signed two contracts to supply engines to Chinese air carriers.

In November it won a £1.1bn order from Air China for engines to supply and service 20 engines for 10 Airbus A350s and 10 A330s, a fortnight after an order worth £750m from China Eastern Airlines.