Cathay races to repair Airbus fleet
HONG KONG
Cathay Pacific raced on Wednesday to replace a faulty engine part that has forced it to ground its A350 planes and other airlines around the world to do their own safety checks.
Cathay, one of the largest operators worldwide of the A350 jetliner, grounded its 48-plane fleet of the aircraft on Monday after a Zurich-bounded flight was forced to return to Hong Kong over an "engine component failure."
The airline has so far canceled nearly 70 flights, with mainly regional routes including connections to Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Bangkok hit.
The component was "the first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide," Cathay said.
So far, an inspection by Cathay has found 15 planes with "affected engine components that require replacement." Three had been repaired on Sept. 3.
Cathay's move prompted other airlines in the region to carry out similar checks on their fleets of Airbus A350-900 and Airbus A350-1000, both powered exclusively by Rolls-Royce engines.
Japan Airlines confirmed that three of their A350 jets turned up no issues, while two more were undergoing inspections yesterday.
A spokesperson for Thai Airways said Wednesday no problems were found after they inspected their 23-plane fleet of A350s following the Cathay incident, and the airline was using their planes as normal.
Cathay has not specificed which engine part had caused the failure. Airbus and Rolls-Royce have also declined to provide details at this stage, saying an ongoing investigation preventing them from commenting further.
Last November, Emirates chief executive Tim Clark expressed concerns about the durability and longevity of A350 engines.
Rolls-Royce has defended its Trent XWB-97 engines and said it was taking steps to improve their durability.
