Cathay Pacific inspects Airbus A350 fleet after engine part failure
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways said on Monday it had started inspecting all its Airbus A350 jets after the in-flight failure of an engine component, sending shares in British engine supplier Rolls-Royce down sharply.
The carrier said it had cancelled 24 return flights operating until the end of Tuesday, and that a number of aircraft would be out of service for several days while the process, which it described as precautionary, was completed.
Shares of the British company – sole supplier of engines for the A350 – fell as much as 8.8% after Cathay reported the failure of an engine component.
The fault was detected on a plane that was forced to return to Hong Kong during a flight to Zurich early Monday. Cathay did not describe the component in detail, but said it was the first of its kind to suffer such a failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide.
→ Cathay Pacific orders 30 Airbus A330neo aircraft
“Thus far we have identified a number of the same engine components that need to be replaced. Spare parts have been secured and repair work is underway,” it said.
According to Flightradar24 data, the diverted aircraft is an A350-1000, the larger of two models of twin-engined A350. These are powered by the XWB-97, Rolls’ largest civil jet engine.
The aircraft involved was delivered in January 2019, according to the same data.
The airline reported that it was coordinating with the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department and engine manufacturers.
Cathay operates a mixed fleet of Boeing and Airbus aircraft and has about 100 aircraft currently on order, including freighters, narrow-body and wide-body aircraft, with rights to acquire a further 80.
With information from Reuters
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