Cathay Pacific Airways said it would return all Airbus 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, reports Reuters.
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.
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