Qatar Airways says 'no impact' from Airbus A350 Rolls Royce engine issue

Cathay Pacific grounded its A350 fleet for 'precautionary' inspections after in-flight failure of an engine part

An Airbus A350 aircraft operated by Cathay Pacific Airways on the tarmac at Hong Kong International Airport on Tuesday, September 3, 2024. Cathay Pacific has canceled several A350 flights for fleet-wide precautionary checks. BloombergShow less

Qatar Airways said there are no issues with its fleet of Airbus A350-1000s in the wake of Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific grounding its A350 fleet for “precautionary” inspections after the in-flight failure of a Rolls-Royce engine part.

Cathay Pacific cancelled several flights after discovering an engine component failure on an A350-1000 wide-body aircraft that was forced to return from its flight to Zurich minutes after taking off from Hong Kong on Monday.

Among the top operators of the A350 in the Middle East is Qatar Airways with 24 of the wide-body aircraft in its fleet.

“At present, there has been no impact on the operation of any Qatar Airways Airbus A350-1000s. We are continuing to monitor any developments,” an airline representative told The National.

Etihad Airways, which operates five of the Airbus A350-1000s, and Turkish Airlines, which operates the smaller A350-900 variant, did not immediately provide a comment on the status of their fleet.

British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce confirmed that Cathay Pacific's aircraft was powered by its Trent XWB-97 engines.

The company said it was committed to working closely with the airline, Airbus and the relevant Hong Kong authorities to support their investigation of the issue.

Rolls-Royce will “keep other airlines that operate Trent XWB-97 engines fully informed of any relevant developments as appropriate”, it said.

Airbus said it is “working closely” with Rolls-Royce and Cathay Pacific.

“At this time it would be inappropriate for us to comment further, pending the ongoing investigation,” the plane manufacturer said.

Passengers at Cathay Pacific check-in counters at Hong Kong International Airport on Tuesday, September 3, 2024. Bloomberg

Cathay Pacific did not identify the engine part that failed but the airline said it was the “first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide”.

The Airbus A350 is a twin-engined long-haul passenger jet that can carry between 300 and 480 passengers. It comes in two sizes: the A350-900 and the larger A350-1000, both powered exclusively by Rolls-Royce engines.

The A350-1000 is Airbus's twin-aisle aircraft which was designed to compete with Boeing's popular 777-300 and 777-300ER versions that go up to a 400-seat capacity. The lightweight carbon-fibre Airbus jet is an all-new design aircraft and was intended to break its US rival's dominance in the “mini-jumbo” segment.

The A350-1000 took to the skies for the first time in November 2016, followed by the first aircraft delivery in 2018 to debut customer Qatar Airways.

It is a larger variant to the new-generation A350-900, which entered service in 2015 also with Qatar Airways. That aircraft competes with Boeing's 777-200ER/LR jets and the 787-10 Dreamliner.

Customers of the A350-1000 include British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways.

The A350-1000 and the A350 freighter use Trent XWB-97 engines, Rolls-Royce's biggest civil jet engine. The A350-900 uses the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 engines.

Dubai-based Emirates has also ordered the Airbus A350-900, but airline president Tim Clark has expressed dissatisfaction with the Rolls-Royce XWB engines that power the larger A350-1000 because he says they need too much maintenance in a hot and sandy environment.

Rolls-Royce has committed to investing more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) to upgrade the engines, seeking to improve their performance and durability.