Engineering giant Rolls-Royce made a huge loss last year, as it increased the charge for fixing problems with one of its engines.

The company also took a hit of £186m, after Airbus said it was stopping production of its A380  superjumbo aircraft, as reported by the BBC.

Rolls-Royce, which has a site in Bristol, reported a pre-tax loss of £2.9bn for 2018, down from a profit of £3.89bn the previous year. But underlying operating profit, removing the exceptional items, was actually up 71 per cent to £633m, from £317m in 2017.

Last year, a fault with the company's Trent 1000 engines grounded planes at a number of airlines. Rolls-Royce said parts in its Trent 1000 engines were wearing out faster than expected, but it had found a solution to the problem.

The charge it had taken on fixing problems with its Trent 1000 engines was £790m. As a result of the Airbus decision to stop delivery of the A380 in 2021, Rolls-Royce had recorded an exceptional item of £186m, relating to onerous contracts, tooling write-offs and other issues connected to the contract.

Rolls-Royce said it is now refocusing its business on civil aerospace, defence and power systems.

It has also said it will no longer compete to supply engines for Boeing's proposed new mid-sized jetliner.