Japanese
carrier ANA Holdings (9202.T), said on Thursday it needs to replace damaged
compressor blades in the Rolls-Royce (RR.L) engines powering its Boeing (BA.N)
787s, forcing it to cancel some Dreamliners flights over the coming weeks.
The carrier
said that under certain flying conditions the compressor blades in the engine's
interior showed corrosion. It said it will cancel nine domestic 787 flights on
Friday, with other cancellations likely in the coming weeks.
ANA's
Dreamliners are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. The Japanese airline
is the biggest operator of the Boeing model with some 49 aircraft, or around a
tenth of the global fleet. Of the 445 Dreamliners in operation worldwide, 168
use the Rolls-Royce engines, according to Boeing's website.
"We are
aware of the situation and are working with Rolls-Royce and ANA to resolve any
issues impacting the airplanes in service," a spokesman for Boeing in
Tokyo said.
Rolls-Royce
Holdings in an e-mailed statement said it was "working closely with ANA to
minimise the effect on aircraft service disruption." It did not say
whether the problem had been found in 787 engines on aircraft operated by other
airlines.
Airlines that
order the Dreamliner can choose either the Rolls-Royce engines or General
Electric Co's (GE.N) GEnx engines for their aircraft.
ANA said
vibrations resulting from the problem with the compressor blades had occurred
on a flight from Japan to Malaysia in February and on one to Vietnam in March.
A 787 traveling on a domestic route on Aug. 20 had also experienced trouble, it
said.
(Reporting by
Maki Shiraki and Tim Kelly in TOKYO and Sarah Young in LONDON; Editing by
Christopher Cushing and Susan Thomas)
Source: Reuters
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