Cathay Pacific halts flights on Airbus jets over engine component failure
Al Jazeera
Shares in engine maker Rolls-Royce fall nearly 9 percent after airline identifies the problem.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways has started a fleet-wide inspection of its Airbus aircraft after identifying an engine component failure, sending shares in British engine maker Rolls-Royce down sharply.
The carrier said on Monday that it had cancelled 24 return flights operating until the end of Tuesday and a number of aircraft would be out of service for several days while the process, which it described as precautionary, was completed.
An Airbus spokesperson referred questions to the airline and Rolls-Royce, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shares in the British company – the sole engine provider for the long-haul A350 jetliner – fell as much as 8.8 percent after Cathay reported the engine component failure.
The failure was identified in an aircraft that was forced to return to Hong Kong during a flight to Zurich on Monday. Cathay did not describe the component in detail but said it was the first of its type to suffer such a failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide.
