Cathay Pacific expects A350s back in service days after engine issue

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific on Wednesday confirmed it expects to return its Airbus A350 planes to service by the weekend, after an in-flight engine issue triggered a fleet-wide inspection of the aircraft and dozens of flight cancelations.

The airline previously announced that an engine component failure had forced a Zurich-bound flight to return to Hong Kong on Sept. 2. The aircraft involved, the A350-1000 variant of the popular wide-body model, uses Trent XWB-97 engines produced by British manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

Cathay Pacific said Wednesday that 15 of the 48 A350s in its fleet — which also includes the A350-900 variant — were found to have engine fuel lines that required replacement. Six have already been repaired and cleared to operate, while the remaining nine are expected to be back in operation by Saturday Sept. 7, it added.

The repairs have been conducted relatively speedily due to the availability of spare parts and the fact that replacements were conducted while the engines remained on-wing, rather than having to be removed.

The disruption led to a total of 45 return flights being cancelled between Sept. 2 and Sept. 7, with all but one of those flights scheduled to head to regional rather than long-haul destinations.

“This was a significant situation for Cathay to manage as the engine component failure was the first of its type to occur on any A350 aircraft anywhere in the world,” Cathay Pacific’s Chief Operations and Service Delivery Officer Alex McGowan said in a Wednesday statement.

“Completing thorough inspection and maintenance for all A350 aircraft within such a short timeframe has been challenging. The ability to safely deal with and resolve this issue reflects the can-do spirit of Cathay’s people.”

The suspension of Cathay Pacific’s A350 flights drove shares of engine-maker Rolls-Royce 6.5% lower on Monday, with investors spooked by a potentially similar situation to the long-running problems with its Trent 1000 engine, which ended up costing the company more than £2.4 billion ($3 billion).

Shares closed slightly higher Tuesday after analysts said early indications were that the issue was a “quick fix” with limited long-term impact, rather than a fundamental design flaw in the engine.

Rolls-Royce said Tuesday it is co-operating with an investigation by Hong Kong authorities and that it would keep other airlines that operate Trent XWB-97 engines “fully informed.”

Airlines with A350s in their fleets include Qatar Airways, British Airways, Japan Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.