GLASGOW'S Rolls Royce plant at Inchinnan could benefit from a new £6.1bn deal the company secured with Emirates airline.

Rolls Royce announced yesterday that it had won its largest ever order, signing a multi billion pound deal to provide Trent engines to the Dubai-based airline to power 50 Airbus A380 superjumbos.

The engine involved, the Trent 900, is produced at Inchinnan and six other Rolls Royce bases in the UK.

Rolls-Royce chief executive John Rishton said they were pleased to secure the order.

He said: "The success of Emirates over the last 30 years has been extraordinary.

"Rolls-Royce has been proud to have been part of this success, powering Emirates aircraft since 1996. We are delighted that Emirates has again placed its trust in our technology, with the biggest order in our history."

The Trent 900 powered the first A380 to go into commercial service in 2007, with Singapore Airlines, and Rolls has had a long association with Emirates which has 60 superjumbos in its fleet and 80 on order.

No one was available at Rolls Royce or Unite union to comment on what the news meant for the Inchinnan plant, which last month announced plans to axe 187 posts.

Staff were told the jobs would reduce shop floor workers by around a third. Around 50 per cent will go this year with the rest in 2016.

Another 31 will be lost at the repair and maintenance base at East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire during this year.

Unions hit out at the cuts, which come on top of the 500 already lost at the Renfrewshire site since 2007.

In November last year, Rolls-Royce announced plans to cut 2,600 jobs over the next 18 months, with most to disappear in the aerospace division during this year.

A Rolls-Royce spokeswoman said they would aim to seek voluntary redundancies, where possible.