Financial Services Association, September 3 (Editor Shi Zhengcheng) On Tuesday afternoon, Beijing time, Cathay Pacific's official website released news that after the Airbus A350 engine failure incident the day before, the engineering team had completed a comprehensive inspection of the company's A350 fleet and found that 15 aircraft needed to replace engine parts.

(Source: Cathay Pacific official website)

Cathay Pacific said that due to engine maintenance, it will cancel an additional 10 pairs of round-trip flights on Wednesday (September 4) in addition to the flights already cancelled on Tuesday. The company expects all affected aircraft to resume operations this Saturday (September 7).

The beginning and end of the incident

On Monday local time, Cathay Pacific flight CX383 took off as planned from Hong Kong, China, and the destination was Zurich. According to FlightRadar data, just a few minutes after taking off from Hong Kong Airport, the plane entered a mode of emitting fuel and waiting to return, and landed safely about 75 minutes after take-off.

(Source: FlightRadar)

Cathay Pacific later reported that the reason for the return of the aircraft was an engine component failure “the first time in the world for an aircraft of the same type”, and that it had notified Airbus, engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce, and regulators. Subsequent inspections revealed that “multiple identical engine parts needed to be replaced” throughout the A350 fleet.

Although all parties have not clearly disclosed which component is at fault, some media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the airline suspected that the problem was with the hose supplying fuel to the engine, and had requested its engineers to check whether the pipeline was abnormal, deformed, distorted, bulging, or deteriorated.

According to reports, Cathay Pacific currently has 48 A350 aircraft. Of these, 18 are the A350-1000 models involved, and 18 A350-900 aircraft are also involved.

How widespread is the impact?

The XWB-97, which discovered the problem, was specially designed by Rolls-Royce for the A350-1000 and A350 freighters. It is also the largest civilian jet engine in the company's product line. According to Airbus data, there are more than 80 aircraft of the same type worldwide. However, the A350-900 XWB-84 engine will also share some components, so the scope of influence may expand to 526 900 aircraft.

In terms of the A350-1000 model, in addition to Cathay Pacific, companies such as Qatar Airways, British Airways, Etihad Airways, and Japan Airlines own this type of aircraft. The impact of the A350-900 will be greater, including domestic Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Sichuan Airlines, which all have dozens of such aircraft.

However, at present, with the exception of Cathay Pacific, no other airlines have entered into a state of action. Japan Airlines, for example, said it has not received details or recommended action from Rolls-Royce, but will verify the situation with the engine manufacturer.

At the official level, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Agency (AAIA) has initiated an investigation after the incident.

(Source: AAIA)

Also, according to a report by First Finance on Tuesday, an airline management revealed that the Civil Aviation Administration of China has now intervened in related investigations to assess whether mainland A350 aircraft need to be inspected.

As the situation gradually eased, fluctuations in the stock market gradually subsided. Rolls-Royce, which is listed in London, England, rebounded more than 3% on Tuesday after falling more than 8% yesterday at most. This reflects the investor's expectation that engine maintenance will not be too expensive, and that more complex engine redesign will not be required.

(Rolls-Royce stock daily chart, source: TradingView)

Rolls-Royce issued a statement on Tuesday saying that it promises to work closely with airlines, aircraft manufacturers and relevant authorities to ensure adequate supply of spare parts if any parts need to be replaced, and that the replacement process does not require removing the engine from the wing.

(Source: Rolls Royce's official website)