Air France in $7bn Airbus A350 deal Air France-KLM on Wednesday placed an order for 25 of Airbus" new A350 passenger aircraft, in a $7bn deal that had been held up by a dispute about who services the jets" engines. The engines will be made by Rolls-Royce, which has been locked in protracted talks with Air France-KLM about which of the two companies should repair and maintain the UK manufacturer's products on these A350 jets. Rolls-Royce and Air France-KLM are also engaged in sensitive discussions about the Franco-Dutch airline's interest in servicing the UK company's engines that are on aircraft operated by other carriers. Air France-KLM first announced in 2011 that it was proposing to buy A350 wide-body jets from Airbus. But the deal subsequently got sidetracked by long talks with Rolls-Royce, which is the sole supplier of engines for the A350. One issue in the talks was whether Rolls-Royce or Air France-KLM would service the engines - because both have large maintenance businesses devoted to this task. A second issue was Air France-KLM's broader push to service Rolls-Royce's engines that are on other airlines" jets. These matters are sensitive for Rolls-Royce partly because it has joint ventures with airlines focused on engine maintenance, including one with Lufthansa, which could be affected by Air France-KLM's efforts to do more work in this area. On Wednesday at the Paris air show, as well as confirming it would buy 25 A350 jets, Air France-KLM signed a memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce to buy its Trent XWB engines to power the aircraft. The deal is worth $7.2bn at catalogue prices, including the engines valued at $1.1bn, but Air France-KLM is expected to secure a significant discount. Rolls-Royce normally seeks to agree deals with airlines that buy its engines known as Total Care, under which the manufacturer also repairs and services its products over long periods. These contracts are an important contributor to Rolls-Royce's revenue, and civil aerospace is the company's biggest unit, reporting operating profit of £727m last year, up 46 per cent compared to 2011 - and representing 49 per cent of the company's earnings. Eric Schulz, head of Rolls-Royce's large civil aerospace engines, said he hoped Air France-KLM would take a Total Care deal, with the maintenance of its Trent XWB engines subcontracted to the airline, but this was still being negotiated. He added Rolls-Royce was "delighted" that Air France-KLM would for the first time be using the company's wide-body engines in the airline's fleet. Alexandre de Juniac, incoming chief executive of Air France-KLM, described Total Care as a "difficult question," saying it had been agreed with Rolls-Royce that the airline's maintenance unit would service the Trent engines. "We had long discussions with Rolls-Royce because it was a change in their business model and they did it," he added. Mr de Juniac described aircraft maintenance as a "strategic issue" for Air France-KLM, which reported a €1.2bn net loss last year. However, the airline's maintenance unit reported operating profit of €145m in 2012, up 32 per cent.