Things are becoming clearer after the incident that happened to a Qantas A380.
It seems that the problem is related to Rolls Royce”s Trent 900 engine that possibly suffers from a conception issue. First consequence : only the airlines that operate Trent 900 equiped A380 are concerned. Namely :Qantas, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. No problem for Emirates and Air France that have chosen the Engine Alliance GP 7200.
Qantas should resume operating their A380 within the next 24h, Lufthansa will check their engine during normal turnarounds and Singapore immediately inspected their super jumbos what caused some delays but the situation is back to normal now. Rolls Royce issued an annoucement asking all these airlines to inspect their Trent 900s.
It seems that a potential failure needing to be fixed was detected some time ago what made the EASA issue a directive that required immediate compliance, followed by the FAA. It’s also know that the Trent 1000 that equips the new B787 already experienced some similar issues.
If, as we speak, there seem to be no need to worry for the aircraft and the concerned airlines (provided they comply with the directive and fix what needs to be), Rolls Royce has more to lose in thi story. As a matter of fact, the Trent 900 is supposed to equip the future A350 and Airbus may possibly think of finding new engines for their future airplane.
Only future will tell if this incident will also impact the decision of future A380 buyers when they’ll have to chose their engines.
