Cathay Pacific to resume full operations by Saturday after Airbus A350 engine issue

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Cathay Pacific said it expects to resume full operations by Saturday after inspecting its long-haul Airbus A350 fleet following engine issues with one of its aircraft mid-flight, adding it had found 15 planes that were affected.

The Hong Kong-based carrier has been examining its fleet of 48 A350 wide-body jets, which are powered by Rolls-Royce XWB engines, after a Zurich-bound flight was forced to return to Hong Kong.

The airline has been inspecting the lines supplying fuel to the engines for abnormalities, according to two people familiar with the situation. Cathay Pacific and Rolls-Royce both declined to comment on the cause of the engine issues.

Shares in Rolls-Royce, the sole provider of engines to the A350 fleet, were up by as much as 4.6 per cent on Tuesday morning after falling more than 6 per cent on Monday when news of the problems first emerged.

Investors have in recent years become wary of engine problems, which can be costly for the manufacturer as well as airlines.

Rolls-Royce faced additional costs of £2.4bn across 2017-2023 to resolve problems related to its Trent engines that powered Boeing’s 787 jets.

Rolls-Royce’s Trent XWB engines power both variants of the A350: its XWB-84 engine powers the smaller A350-900 model, while its XWB-97 engine powers the larger plane, the A350-1000.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note that if the issue was focused on the fuel nozzle, rather than a “more widespread issue covering multiple parts or systems . . . [this] should allay concerns of a Trent 1000 2.0”.

Rolls-Royce said in a statement on Tuesday that it was “committed to working closely with the airline, aircraft manufacturer and the relevant authorities to support their investigation into this incident”.

Cathay Pacific said that three of the affected aircraft had already been repaired. The remaining planes will continue to be out of service until they have been repaired and cleared for operation, it said.

The carrier has cancelled at least 34 return flights up to Wednesday because of the inspection, most of them regional flights.

Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department said they were “very concerned” about the issue and had been in touch with Cathay as well as other relevant stakeholders.

Europe’s aviation regulator said on Monday that it would be “monitoring any information coming out of the technical investigation”.

No other airline has yet reported any disruption. The A350-1000 plane represents a relatively small portion of the overall A350 fleet. There are 86 A350-1000 jets in operation globally, according to Airbus data.

Cathay is one of the largest operators of A350s, including 18 A350-1000. Other large A350-1000 operators include Qatar Airways, BA and Virgin Atlantic.