Cathay Pacific inspects all A350 jets after engine issue

(Sharecast News) - Hong Kong's flag carrier was planning to axe an additional 10 return flights on Wednesday following the discovery the day before of a technical issue with a component of the Rolls-Royce manufactured engine of one of its A350 jets.

In response, the airline said that it had conducted inspections of the entire A350 fleet, comprising 48 aircraft, and had identified 15 jets which needed to have engine components replaced.

Three aircraft had already been repaired and all of the affected jets were expected to be flight worthy by Saturday.

According to Cathay, the component "was the first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide", Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Cathay did not specify what the engine part was.

The day before a Cathay A350-1000 heading for Zurich had been forced to return to Hong Kong.

Long-haul services should not be affected, the airline added on Tuesday.

Shares of Rolls Royce had finished the previous session down by 6.5%.

As of 0800 BST, shares of Cathay Pacific were trading 0.62% lower to 7.960 HKD.

-- More to follow --