Abu Dhabi: UAE's national carrier Etihad Airways confirmed that it is running checks on its fleet of five Airbus A350-1000s after Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific found 15 planes that needed fuel line repairs following the in-flight failure of an engine part on Monday. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier confirmed it has not come across any issues so far.
"Etihad Airways is currently pro-actively inspecting Rolls Royce engines across its A350 fleet," an Etihad spokesperson said.
"At present Etihad has discovered no issues, nor experienced any similar events with the engine hence does not anticipate any impact on its operations. The airline continues to monitor the situation alongside the aviation authorities and equipment manufacturers," explained a statement from the airline.
Britain's Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, which makes the Trent XWB-97 engine that powers the A350-1000 model (meaning not all A350s may require inspections) said on Thursday it was launching "a one-time precautionary engine inspection programme" which may apply "to a portion of the A350 fleet". The Airbus A350-900 has a different engine, also manufactured by Rolls Royce, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium.
Rolls-Royce shares fell as much as 3.4 per cent, adding to declines this week, and were down 2.4 per cent in London. Airbus slipped 1.6 per cent. Cirium also said there are 87 passenger aircraft with the Trent XWB-9 type engine in service worldwide, one in storage, and 210 on order. There are 55 A350F (cargo) on order, but none in service.
Regional impact
Etihad Airways is the sole UAE airline which has this aircraft type in service. In the region, Qatar Airways is among the top operators of the A350 in the Middle East with 24 of the wide-body aircraft in its fleet. The airline told media that there has been no impact on the operation of any Qatar Airways Airbus A350-1000s. However, the carrier said it continues to monitor the situation.
Meanwhile, some of Asia's largest operators of the Airbus SE A350 have been carrying out precautionary inspections on their fleets.
Japan Airlines finished checks on all five of its A350-1000s and found no issues. It also started undertaking checks on its 15 of the smaller -900 model, with 10 completed and cleared. Singapore Airlines Ltd., the largest operator globally of the A350 with 64 jets, said it started checks.
Air China Ltd. has canceled four domestic flights that were scheduled to be operated Wednesday using the A350-900, Flightradar24 data shows. The state-run carrier, in which Cathay has a 15.9 per cent stake, planned to undertake general inspections of its fleet of 30 A350-900s, according to local media. The airline declined to comment when contacted Tuesday.
European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it was taking "precautionary measures" based on preliminary information that it has received from the investigation that's being led by the Air Accident Investigation Authority of Hong Kong, as well as from Airbus and Rolls-Royce.
