All Nippon Airways will reportedly need three years to replace all the faulty parts in the Rolls-Royce engines in its fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners,
Japan’s biggest airline said last week that it may have to cancel 300 flights over the coming weeks after its 787s were forced to return to airports because of problems of fatigue cracks in the turbine blades in the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines.
ANA said yesterday that the companies are discussing the cost of replacing turbines in the engines of its 50 Dreamliners by the end of 2019.
“As safety is our top priority, we have decided to take extra steps to ensure the safe operation of our aircraft and as a result, several domestic flights have been cancelled. We would like to express our regret for any concern or inconvenience caused,” the airline said.
“We have been working with Rolls-Royce, the designer and manufacturer of the engines in question, to implement permanent technical solutions to this issue.”
The new generation wide-body twinjet made its debut with ANA and the airline maintains the world’s largest fleet of 787s, amounting to one in nine of all those in operation.
ANA uses the aircraft on its busy domestic routes as well as on the long-haul flights for which it was designed.
All of ANA’s Dreamliners are fitted with Rolls-Royce engines rather than those manufactured by General Electric, the preferred choice on most 787s. Other Dreamliner fleets fitted with Trent 1000 engines include British Airways, Air China and Air New Zealand.
Warren East, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, was quoted by The Times as saying: “It is an issue but it’s a manageable issue.”