Rolls-Royce engine issue grounds Cathay Pacific flights.
Cathay Pacific Airways, a major airline based in Hong Kong, has initiated a comprehensive inspection of its Airbus aircraft fleet following the identification of a failure in an engine component. This discovery has led to a significant drop in the stock price of Rolls-Royce, the British company responsible for the engines, with shares plummeting nearly 9 percent.
On Monday, the airline announced that it had decided to cancel 24 round-trip flights scheduled to operate up until the end of Tuesday. Several of its aircraft are expected to remain grounded for a number of days as the airline conducts what it has described as a precautionary examination of its fleet.
An Airbus spokesperson redirected inquiries to Cathay Pacific and Rolls-Royce, both of which have yet to provide additional comments on the situation. Rolls-Royce is the exclusive engine supplier for the long-distance A350 aircraft.
The component failure was discovered in an Airbus aircraft that had to return to Hong Kong mid-flight to Zurich on Monday. Although Cathay Pacific has not provided specific details regarding the component, it confirmed that this was the first occurrence of such a failure in any A350 aircraft worldwide.
“To date, we have identified several engine components that require replacement. We have secured spare parts, and the necessary repairs are currently underway,” Cathay Pacific stated. Data from Flightradar24 revealed that the affected aircraft is an A350-1000, the larger variant of the twin-engine A350, which is powered by Rolls-Royce’s XWB-97 engine—the largest jet engine manufactured by Rolls-Royce.
The aircraft involved in this incident was delivered to Cathay Pacific in January 2019. It remains unclear when the specific Rolls-Royce XWB-97 engine in question was installed on the aircraft, as airlines and engine manufacturers sometimes swap engines between aircraft to align with maintenance schedules.
Cathay Pacific has assured that it is working closely with the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department, as well as the aircraft and engine manufacturers, to address the issue. The airline operates a mixed fleet comprising both Boeing and Airbus aircraft and has approximately 100 planes currently on order. These include a variety of freighters, narrow-body, and wide-body aircraft, with additional options to acquire up to 80 more.
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