Snag in Airbus A350 engine forces Cathay Pacific to scrap Hong Kong-Singapore flights on September 3

Several Hong Kong-Singapore flights were cancelled by Cathay Pacific Airways on September 3 after an engine of an Airbus SE A350 plane developed a snag on Monday, September 2, reports said.

The Hong Kong-based company said that the engine of a Hong Kong to Zurich flight developed a problem minutes after take-off. It returned to the base 75 minutes later.

This prompted Cathay Pacific Airways to do an inspection on all 48 of its Airbus A350 planes, reported Reuters. The company presently has 18 A350-1000 planes and 30 A350-900 planes, which are powered by Rolls-Royce engines.

The development led to Eight of Cathay’s nine scheduled flights on the Hong Kong-Singapore route on September 3 to be scrapped.

Flights to Bangkok and Tokyo’s Narita airport on September 3 were also cancelled.

Cathay Pacific Airways said it has “identified a number of the same engine components that need to be replaced”. However, it did not reveal which model of the A350 it referred to.

Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce shares dropped 6.5 percent on Monday, as per Reuters. The Straits Times reported that the shares plunged “as much as 8.2 per cent on Sept 2”.