Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Grounding Updates

Cathay Pacific has provided updates on the ongoing grounding and engine difficulties across its Airbus A350 fleet.

The difficulties relate specifically to the engines. An issue was detected on a flight between Hong Kong and Zurich, forcing the aircraft to return to the airline’s home base.

Cathay Pacific initially said that it had grounded the fleet as a precautionary measure and was going to inspect all 48 units.

After subsequent inspections, it was revealed that 15 of the planes needed repairs, with a focus on the engine component that had seemingly failed shortly after departure.

Moreover, the part that is of focus has yet to fail on any other Airbus A350 with the same engines worldwide. As a result, it has come without warning and as a shock.

Bloomberg, who initially broke the story later, would confirm that the problem was related to deformed and or degraded fuel lines with Rolls Royce, the provider of the engines for the aircraft.

Rolls Royce said it was committed to working with Cathay Pacific to overcome the obstacles and believed the issues could be resolved diligently with limited operational impact.

Furthermore, Rolls-Royce says it’s currently in an open dialogue with other operators of the XWB-97 engines regarding the part and replacement and any concerns about this being more widespread rather than isolated.

Cathay Pacific will be forced to cancel flights in the coming days but believes that the 15 aircraft affected shouldn’t remain on the ground for too long.

In a statement, the airline confirmed it had already successfully repaired the problem across three aircraft and aims to work through all remaining inspections by Sunday, September 7th, thus returning to a normal flight schedule.

The limited operational impact is being enhanced further, with the airline reworking its schedule over the coming days to limit the long-haul impact.

Cathay Pacific has stated that it also remains committed to the safety of its customers and its people. As a result, it is treating this matter with the utmost care and placing importance on rectifying the problem.