Japanese carrier ANA Holdings (ALNPY) said on Thursday it needs to replace damaged compressor blades in the Rolls-Royce engines powering its Boeing (BA) 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 (RYCEY) in an e-mailed statement said it was “working closely with ANA to minimize 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 (GE) 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.