Commentary: A350 safety incident is a bump in Cathay Pacific’s road to post-pandemic recovery

SINGAPORE: On Sep 24, 2024, Cathay Pacific Airways will mark its 78th anniversary.
How the birthday will be celebrated depends on how quickly the airline, recognised as one of the world’s best, recovers from an engine malfunction on Sep 2 during a routine flight from Hong Kong to Zurich.
Shortly after Flight CX383 took off from Chek Lap Kok airport for the Swiss capital, one of the engines failed, forcing the plane to circle to dump fuel before landing safely back in Hong Kong.
The incident compelled Cathay, the de facto flag carrier of the Special Administrative Region, to ground 15 of its fleet of 48 A350 aircraft made by European consortium Airbus, resulting in the cancellation of 90 flights.
Cathay and Rolls-Royce, manufacturer of the Trent XWB-97 engines for the A350-1000 jet, have acknowledged problems with the fuel nozzle in the engine, a “first of its type to suffer such failure”, according to the airline. Cathay’s inspection turned up 15 affected aircraft that needed the engine components replaced.
This was an unwelcome bump in the road for Cathay on its hard-fought recovery after severe pandemic losses.
It was reported in Bloomberg that Cathay expected flight volume to fully recover in early 2025 and has fully repaid the government loan that kept it afloat during the pandemic. Additionally, large numbers of visitors have also started to return to Hong Kong this year.
At least 80 A350-1000s have been delivered to eight operators, including Qatar Airways (launch customer of the A350 family of aircraft and the biggest A350-1000s operator with 24) and Japan Airlines.
Other carriers have ordered the A350-1000 in large numbers too, including Air India, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, Lufthansa, Philippine Airlines, Qantas, Starlux and Turkish Airlines. US airline Delta had just ordered 20 A350-1000s in January with 20 on option.
Europe’s air safety regulator issued an emergency airworthiness directive on Sep 5, instructing carriers using the Trent XWB-97 engines to carry out a “one-time visual and dimensional inspection of the fuel manifold main fuel hoses”, within three, seven or 30 days depending on the number of flight hours or engine cycles and previous checks.
Passengers might breathe a bit more easily – so far, none of the other carriers have reported major issues with their A350-900s and A350-1000s.
The Airbus A350 family of widebody aircraft was designed in 2004, as a response to Boeing’s Dreamliner jet, the B787 family. The A350 is now the flagship twin-aisle passenger jet, since Airbus ended production of its superjumbo A380 since 2021.
They were not constructed as direct rivals. Airbus designers and engineers went one better by making a slightly larger plane than the Dreamliner, and one that incorporated state-of-the art components and materials.
The A350 was built to offer airlines a completely new widebody aircraft with better economics than existing ones, including Boeing’s B777-200/300 family of twin-aisle planes that had a stranglehold on the market for two decades.
The A350-1000 planes are a stretched version of the widely popular A350-900. Singapore Airlines is the world’s largest operator of the A350 family, with more than 60 A350-900 jets currently in its fleet, including A350 freighters.
Cathay’s A350-1000s can accommodate 334 passengers and are deployed, as can be expected, to major cities in Europe and North America (Vancouver, New York and Boston).
Interestingly, the A350-1000s are also heavily used for flights to Japan, including Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda and Kansai, underscoring the importance of the Japanese market for the carrier. It is used on the Hong Kong-Singapore route, too.
Cathay’s engineers have since completed checks on its A350-1000s and completed repairs on the fuel hose in question.
This incident comes at a time when many airlines are grappling with supply chain problems and other logistical woes brought about by COVID-19. Cathay’s recovery strategy has come under intense scrutiny after heavy losses during the pandemic.
The Trent XWB-97 technical glitch does not fall into that category, according to people familiar with Rolls-Royce and Cathay. On the contrary, it reinforces the high safety standards industry regulators put on airlines and airline employees alike.
Cathay has shown itself to be responsive to this safety issue, by quickly cancelling flights and inspecting its fleet, as well as ensuring disruptions to passengers’ travel plans were minimised.
While some flyers may express uneasiness over such an occurrence, they should know that flying remains the safest mode of transportation.
For Cathay, though, it is yet another testament to its DNA and to its majority shareholder, the Swire Group, whose astute albeit haughty, stiff upper-lip style of management will ensure the airline stays strong for a long time to come.
After all, it was founded in 1946 by two buccaneering pilots – Roy Farrell and Sydney de Kantzow – pioneers who overcame physical and financial hardships that would make this fuel hose mishap look like a doddle.
Shukor Yusof is the founder of Endau Analytics, an independent aviation advisory firm based in Singapore.