Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told a press conference, “Oil leaks have been discovered in the turbine sections of three engines. We have removed these engines from the aircraft for further testing,” in a video posted by Guardian.
“We are now planning that the A380 fleet will remain out of service for at least the next 72 hours,” Joyce continued.
Joyce told NTD News, “We believe this is probably most likely a material failure or some type of design issue. We don’t believe this is related to maintenance in any way.”
The investigations were spurred by the emergency landing of a Qantas A380 on Nov. 4. One of the A380’s four engines failed shortly after takeoff from Singapore’s Changi Airport, damaging the wing. The plane, with 440 passengers aboard, was able to land safely.
The incident prompted Singapore Airlines to temporarily ground its 11 Airbus A380s. German carrier Lufthansa followed suit. Both airlines have resumed services after making their own investigations.
Costs Unknown
According to Qantas CEO Joyce, the airline has not begun to assess any possible financial implications of the engine failures.
“It’s too early to put a number on the total cost to the organization. We will do that once we have the aircraft back into service,” Joyce said in the video.
“In terms of legal action or recovery from Airbus or Rolls Royce, our focus is still on making sure we work with Airbus and Rolls Royce to get the aircraft back into operation, and any discussion about compensations will take place after that event.”
Joyce mentioned loss of demand as well as lost revenue due to canceled flights, as factors which would be considered when the firm finally does assess financial damages. It would be very hard to estimate losses to Qantas if fliers chose another airline because Qantas was deemd to be unsafe or unreliable.
Commonwealth Bank analysts estimate Qantas could lose $15–20 million in revenue per week due to the grounding, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. By comparison, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland cost the airline $46 million over two weeks.
Qantas stock lost four percent as the news of an extended grounding spread.
Shares in Rolls-Royce Group PLC lost almost 4 percent Monday morning on the London Stock Exchange. They dropped more than 5 percent after Thursday’s in-flight incident.
