ANA set to cancel 133 domestic flights

Source: Xinhua | 2018-07-05

JAPANESE airline ANA Holdings Inc said it will cancel 113 domestic flights from July 6 through July 12 to inspect Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc engines for compressor issues that have led to service interruptions for airlines globally.

The affected Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines are used on ANA’s Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner jets, the Japanese airline said yesterday.

A compressor problem in the Trent 1000 package C engine has already led to planes being grounded by airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand. In June, Rolls Royce said it had found the same issue on a “small number of high life package B engines.”

ANA has been conducting inspections on Trent 1000 package C engines under instruction from Japan’s transport ministry, with an expansion of inspections to include package B engines leading to the flight cancellations, the airline said.

In total 136 engines are affected, said ANA, the world’s biggest 787 operator by fleet size.

Progress on a fix for the affected engines has been hampered by a global shortage of replacement parts, the airline said.