Cathay Pacific A350 fleet to resume full service by Saturday after repairs
All Cathay's A350s expected to resume service by Saturday
Source says leaking fuel system may have caused engine fire
Engine maker Rolls-Royce has not ordered fleet-wide inspection Some Asian A350 operators inspecting engines, carriers say
15 A350s need fuel line repairs, Cathay says
Updates with comments from airlines paragraphs 15,19
By Lisa Barrington and Joanna Plucinska
Sept 4 (Reuters) -Cathay Pacific Airways 0293.HK said it would return all Airbus AIR.PA A350s to operation by Saturday following engine fuel lines repairs, while other airlines were waiting for guidance from manufacturer Rolls-Royce on whether they needed to inspect their engines.
Several Asian A350 operators have chosen to carry out their own precautionary inspections after Cathay Pacific found 15 planes that needed fuel line repairs following the in-flight failure of an engine part this week that forced its A350-1000 passenger plane to dump fuel and return to Hong Kong.
Other airlines have said they are closely monitoring the situation and are in touch with Rolls-Royce.
The inspections and repairs to Cathay's fleet of 48 A350 widebody jets made the carrier cancel 45 round trips on mostly regional Asian routes this week, it said in its latest update.
Cathay Pacific said six A350s had been repaired and were cleared to operate. The remaining nine were expected to be fixed and returned to operation by Saturday.
"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's Chief Operations and Service Delivery Officer Alex McGowan said.
The airline, which operates A350-900 and A350-1000 planes fitted with different Rolls-Royce engines, did not specify which models were being repaired.
A person familiar with the matter said a leak in a fuel system appeared to have caused a brief engine fire that was quickly extinguished by the crew of a Zurich-bound A350-1000 plane on Monday, which returned to Hong Kong just over an hour after take-off.
There were no immediate signs that the incident would trigger significant regulatory action involving the A350 fleet, the person added.
NO OFFICIAL MANDATE
Rolls-Royce, which makes the two types of engines for the A350-900 and the slightly longer A350-1000, has not issued an official mandate for fleet-wide inspections of either engine type and airlines are taking different approaches.
Still, a number of carriers have said they are either inspecting their fleet or are in touch with Rolls-Royce over the issue at Cathay.
Tokyo-based Japan Airlines (JAL) 9210.T, which has five new A350-1000s, said on Wednesday it was conducting its own engine inspections.
By Tuesday, three had been inspected and found to be safe, the carrier said, and the remaining two would be checked on Wednesday.
Qatar Airways, which operates the most A350-1000s, on Tuesday said the issue had no impact on its planes and it continued to monitor any developments.
British Airways ICAG.L and Virgin Atlantic, which operate A350-1000s, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Taiwan's Starlux, which has six A350-900s said: "Out of caution, we have contacted Rolls-Royce, the engine manufacturer, and are awaiting an official reply."
Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI is inspecting its A350-900 engines as a precaution, but said flights were not impacted.
Air China, a major A350-900 operator, will perform general engine checks, reported Caixin, a Chinese business and economics publication, on Tuesday. Air China did not respond to a request for comment.
Air France AIRF.PA and Lufthansa LHAG.DE, which also have A350-900s, also told Reuters they are in touch with Rolls-Royce and Airbus and are monitoring the situation closely.
The incident caused a sharp drop in the shares of British engine maker Rolls-Royce RR.L on Monday, but they bounced back on Tuesday as concerns over implications for the global fleet eased and some analysts called the sell-off overdone.
Rolls Royce shares were down 0.1% at 0824 GMT on Wednesday.
Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru, Joanna Plucinska in London and Lisa Barrington in Seoul; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Jamie Freed, Tomasz Janowski and Miral Fahmy
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
