Cathay Pacific Airways announced that it will resume operations of all Airbus A350s by Saturday after completing repairs on engine fuel lines. Meanwhile, other airlines are awaiting instructions from Rolls-Royce to determine if they need to inspect their engines. Several Asian operators of the A350 have opted to conduct their own preventive inspections following Cathay Pacific's discovery of 15 planes requiring fuel line repairs after an engine part failure mid-flight this week. This incident led to the A350-1000 having to jettison fuel and return to Hong Kong.
The inspections and necessary repairs on Cathay's fleet of 48 A350 widebody jets resulted in the cancellation of 45 round trips on predominantly Asian routes this week. Cathay Pacific reported that six A350s have already been repaired and are back in service, with the remaining nine expected to be fixed and operational by Saturday.
Cathay's chief operations and service delivery officer, Alex McGowan, described the situation as significant, noting that this was the first instance of such an engine component failure on any A350 worldwide. The airline, which operates both A350-900 and A350-1000 models with different Rolls-Royce engines, did not specify which models were undergoing repairs.
A source close to the matter revealed that a fuel system leak seemed to have caused a brief engine fire, which was swiftly extinguished by the crew of a Zurich-bound A350-1000 on Monday. This flight returned to Hong Kong shortly after takeoff. There were no immediate indications that this incident would lead to significant regulatory actions involving the A350 fleet.
Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of the engines for both A350 models, has not yet mandated a fleet-wide inspection for either engine type. Consequently, airlines are adopting varied approaches. Japan Airlines (JAL), based in Tokyo and operating five new A350-1000s, announced on Wednesday that it was conducting its own engine inspections. By Tuesday, three of these had been inspected and deemed safe, with the remaining two scheduled for inspection on Wednesday.
Qatar Airways, the largest operator of A350-1000s, stated on Tuesday that the issue had no impact on its aircraft and that it was continuing to monitor the situation. Taiwan's Starlux, which operates six A350-900s, has contacted Rolls-Royce for guidance and is awaiting a formal response. Singapore Airlines is conducting precautionary inspections on its A350-900 engines without affecting flights. Air China, a major operator of A350-900s, plans to perform general engine checks, according to a report by Caixin.
The incident led to a significant drop in Rolls-Royce's share prices on Monday, but they recovered on Tuesday as concerns about the global fleet's implications eased, and some analysts deemed the sell-off excessive. Rolls-Royce shares were marginally down by 0.1 percent at 0824 GMT on Wednesday.
