Thai Airways International (THAI) is operating its fleet of Airbus A350s as usual with no engine problems detected, said THAI president Chai Eamsiri in the wake of flight cancellations caused by faulty engines fitted on the same type of aircraft at Cathay Pacific.
Mr Chai said THAI's Airbus A350s are regularly inspected and maintained. No faulty engine has been found yet and the fleet is operating without a hitch, he said.
The THAI president's assurance came as Cathay Pacific Airways cancelled almost all its scheduled flights from Hong Kong to Singapore yesterday, as well as a raft of other services across Asia, after discovering a faulty engine component on some of its Airbus A350s, according to Bloomberg News.
Eight of Cathay’s nine scheduled Hong Kong-Singapore services were scrapped, according to the airline’s website. The only flight due to depart as of mid-morning yesterday was an afternoon connection on a Boeing 777.
Meanwhile, nearly half of Cathay’s services yesterday from Hong Kong to Bangkok and those to Tokyo’s Narita airport were also axed. Of those still running, none are on an A350. Cathay said 48 individual flights, including return legs, have been cancelled.
The Hong Kong-based airline, among the world’s biggest operators of the long-haul A350, identified the component failure on a plane forced to return from a flight originally headed to Zurich on Monday.