How Airbus & Boeing Quietly Killed Engine Choice On Every New Widebody Aircraft

Airbus and Boeing’s current widebody launches have largely eliminated customer choice of engines. The Airbus A350 and Boeing 777X each come with a single engine option, locking airlines into long-term supplier relationships—Rolls-Royce for Airbus orders and General Electric for Boeing ones. The article says this is a major break from earlier widebodies, including the 787 as the last to offer more than one engine, and the 777, which can be equipped with engines from GE, Rolls-Royce, or Pratt & Whitney. It traces the shift to early-2000s design decisions, citing the 787’s standardized wing-engine surface versus Airbus’s A350 clean-sheet approach partnered exclusively with Rolls-Royce.