Dreamliner engine problem forces ANA flight to return as Rolls-Royce replacements loom

Japan's biggest airline and the world's largest operator of the Boeing superjumbo has cancelled flights and is looking at replacing the powerplants on some of its 787s.

An ANA 787 Dreamliner taking off from Tokyo's Haneda airport. The carrier has suffered problems with the Rolls-Royce engines on its 787 fleet of 50 aircraft. Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP

An ANA Dreamliner en route to Mumbai had to return to Tokyo's Narita airport on Tuesday after an engine signalled problems, the ANA spokeswoman Maho Ito said. The airline said it has not ascertained the cause.

The news came as ANA said it will have to replace some Rolls-Royce engines on its Boeing Dreamliners, after issues with the power plants kept disrupting services at the world’s biggest operator of the 787 aircraft.

“We are aware of the event and working with our customer to provide support and technical assistance,” Richard Wray, a Roll-Royce spokesman, said of the Mumbai flight problem..

The Japanese carrier will prioritise replacement in some aircraft, while Rolls-Royce develops a new version of the blades used in the power plants, ANA said in Tokyo on Tuesday. ANA, which cancelled more than a dozen Dreamliner flights since last week, said on Monday it found broken turbines on three 787 widebodies with Rolls-Royce engines.

The Dreamliner, Boeing's most-advanced carbon-fibre jet, has had its fair share of teething problems since a two-year-late debut in 2011. In 2013, Boeing and regulators grounded the global Dreamliner fleet after lithium-ion batteries caught fire on two jets.

ANA warned last week it may have to scrap more than 300 flights through the end of September as it deals with cracking in the medium-pressure turbines of the Trent 1000 engines, before saying on Monday it will not cancel any Dreamliner flights in the first half of September.

The problems will probably lead to increased costs for Rolls-Royce, said George Ferguson, a senior industry analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Most Rolls-Royce engines are covered by price-per-flight-hour maintenance contracts, meaning increased long-term cost is also borne by Rolls-Royce, he said.

The latest issue came to light after corrosion was found on the turbine blades that led to an aircraft having to shut down a power plant. Rolls-Royce is supposed to start supplying ANA with modified versions of the turbine blades from January and the carrier will replace the current blades in all its planes, ANA said last week.

ANA, which has been in talks with Rolls-Royce over the engines since March, operates almost a third of the global Dreamliners with Trent 1000 engines, according to a Morgan Stanley research report. The airline is talking to Rolls-Royce about the costs of replacing the turbines that power its 50 787s fleet by the end of 2019, a spokesman said.

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