What’s next for Cathay after engine fault grounds Hong Kong carrier’s Airbus A350 fleet?

Cathay Pacific Airways passengers were left scrambling to find alternative travel arrangements earlier this week after a faulty engine component prompted Hong Kong’s flag carrier to ground its entire fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft.

The Post shares the latest developments and how the technical fault has affected the airline’s operations.

1. Why was Cathay’s A350 fleet grounded?

Cathay Pacific grounded all of its Airbus A350 planes after an engine component failure was discovered on an aircraft flying the CX383 route to Zurich, forcing it to return to Hong Kong on Monday morning.

The plane involved was an A350-1000 model.

The company said it had uncovered “a number of the same engine components that needed to be replaced” after grounding the fleet for inspection.

But the carrier did not specify which component was faulty and only said it was the “first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide”.