Japan Airlines expects no flight cancellations from A350 inspections

By Lisa Barrington, Tim Hepher

SEOUL (Reuters) -Japan Airlines said on Friday it did not expect flight cancellations or delays and Virgin Atlantic said it would try to limit disruptions due to inspections ordered by Europe's air safety regulator on engines of Airbus A350-1000 jets.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency said on Thursday Trent XWB-97 engines made by Rolls-Royce should be checked after an engine fire during the flight of a Cathay Pacific jetliner.

"Working with our customers and our supply chain, we are confident in our ability to deliver on the inspection regime," Rolls-Royce said.

Airlines had questioned Airbus and Rolls-Royce in briefings on Thursday about the availability of parts, a person briefed on the matter said. 

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific cancelled a number of flights this week while it checked and repaired A350 engines after a Zurich-bound jet was forced to return to Hong Kong on Monday due to the engine problem, later traced to a fuel leak.

EASA gave airlines between three and 30 days to carry out visual checks and measurements on flexible fuel hose connections inside the A350-1000 engines. The smaller A350-900 variant is not subject to the order.

Japan Airlines (JAL) inspected its entire fleet of A350-1000 and A350-900 jets earlier this week, but said it would need to conduct additional inspections in accordance with the EASA directive and service instructions from Rolls-Royce.

"No issues were found on any aircraft," JAL said in a statement.

Virgin Atlantic, which has 12 Airbus A350-1000s, said it received the EASA directive.

"Our engineering teams are working hard to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum and our customers can complete their journeys as planned," the airline said in a statement.

Qatar Airways, which operates the largest number of A350-1000 jets, said on Friday it was carrying out inspections after it received the directives.     

Etihad Airways, which has five A350-1000 jets, said it began inspecting engines proactively before the directive was issued and continues to do so in compliance with directive. 

"Etihad has discovered no issues, nor experienced any similar events with the engine, so does not anticipate any impact on its operations," it said in a statement. 

British Airways, which also operates A350-1000 jets, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. 

TECHNICAL CLARITY

Industry sources said the parts are made by Parker Hannifin, a leading supplier of specialist fuel and other systems.

The Parker Aerospace unit announced in 2008 it had won contracts to supply the fuel and hydraulic systems for the A350 aircraft including equipment to handle "engine feed". Part numbers listed by EASA for inspection had the prefix PH. 

Parker Hannifin did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the publication of EASA's directive.

Asked about the affected parts earlier this week, a company spokesperson said: "If called upon, we are ready to offer our support of the investigation of this matter."  

Cathay Pacific said on Friday that maintenance activity on its A350 fleet "continues to progress well" and will wrap up by Saturday as expected.

Accident investigators in Hong Kong, where Cathay is based, are still investigating the incident. 

Broker Jefferies said in a note to clients on Friday it considered the engine issue was unlikely to be widespread, and said no significant regulatory action had been taken. 

"With the faulty part in question now confirmed as a fuel nozzle/hose, any work required on the engines, if found to be faulty, should be fairly limited and a quick fix ... This implies only minor costs for Rolls-Royce," it said.

(Additional reporting by Maki Shiraki, Andrew Mills, Allison Lampert, Joanna Plucinska, Alban Kacher; Editing by David Goodman, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Jan Harvey and Alan Barona)