Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific said Wednesday it expects to return to normal operations by Saturday after repairs to several of its Airbus A350s that were being examined for safety reasons led to the cancellation of dozens of flights.
“Fifteen aircraft” have “engine fuel lines” that require replacement, and “six of these have already undergone successful repairs,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.
The remaining nine aircraft will also be repaired and are expected to return to service “by Saturday,” Cathay Pacific added.
The engines concerned are Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97s, which power the A350-1000s, the largest version of Airbus’ flagship long-haul aircraft, according to the British engine manufacturer which also supplies the Trent XWB-84 fitted to the A350-900.
A total of 90 flights were cancelled between Monday and Saturday, including routes to Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Bangkok, Cathay added.
The company said earlier this week that it had identified “an engine component failure,” saying “this component is the first of its kind to suffer such a failure on an A350 anywhere in the world.”
Cathay Pacific, one of the world’s largest operators of A350 jets, grounded all 48 of the type in its fleet after a Zurich-bound plane was forced to turn back to Hong Kong on Monday.
Qatar Airways, the largest operator of the A350-1000, said it had not seen any impact on its operations so far while monitoring the situation.
Several Asian airlines have also checked their fleets of A350-900 and A350-1000.
Japan Airlines confirmed that three of its A350s were fine, and that two more were being examined on Wednesday.
A Thai Airways spokesman said no anomalies had been found during checks of the airline’s 23 Airbus A350s since Monday’s incident.
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Singapore Airlines said it was inspecting the engines of its A350-900 fleet “as a precaution” without affecting its flights.
– “Bad sign” –
In Europe, Air France, which flies A350-900 models, said it was in contact with Airbus and Rolls-Royce. The two companies “have neither advised nor asked the airlines to carry out checks,” the French airline said.
Airbus and Rolls-Royce declined to comment, saying ongoing reviews prevented them from doing so. Airbus said it was working “closely with Rolls-Royce and Cathay Pacific.”
The French group Dubreuil, owner of the airlines Air Caraïbes and French Bee, which mainly operate A350s, including five in version 1000, long-haul aircraft that can cover up to 16,000 km per flight, stressed that “to date no feedback or action has been required on the aircraft in service with the airlines”, which have not reported “any engine incident of this type”.
Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department said on Wednesday that it had contacted the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and other aviation authorities in the sector to inform them of the matter.
But EASA had not released any specific information on the engines equipping the A350 by late Wednesday afternoon, and did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests on the subject.
Terence Fan, an aviation expert at Singapore Management University, pointed out that “fuel lines at the engine” could affect fuel flow, which is “critically important”. “You certainly wouldn’t want the same thing happening in two of the two engines of the same aircraft in mid-flight,” he told AFP.
Mr Fan noted that a mechanical problem could be fixed quickly by replacing parts, but said it was a “bad sign” that the problem affected a third of Cathay’s A350 fleet.
Last November, Emirates CEO Tim Clark expressed concern about the longevity of the A350’s engines.
Rolls-Royce has defended the Trent XWB-97s and said it is taking steps to improve their durability.
Shukor Yusof, an analyst at Singapore-based consultancy Endau Analytics, told AFP the case would likely hit Cathay’s financial results.
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