ANA to Scrap 113 Flights for Rolls-Royce Engine Inspections

(Bloomberg) -- ANA Holdings Inc., Japan's largest airline, will cancel 113 domestic flights for mandatory checks to help assess possible glitches in the Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc engines powering its Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners.

The flights will be cancelled July 6-12, the Tokyo-based carrier said in a statement Wednesday. ANA is assessing whether more flights need to be scrapped beyond that period for checks on the Trent 1000 engines, said Yuko Yoshimura, a spokeswoman at the airline.

Carriers around the world have been forced to lease replacement planes or cancel services as idled jets undergo inspections and repairs involving the power plants. The European Aviation Safety Agency said last week it planned to issue a directive on the Trent 1000 engine that will require replacement of high-pressure turbine disc front cover plates, and that a parts failure could lead to reduced control of an aircraft.

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The Japanese airline has been working closely with Rolls-Royce and regulatory authorities over the past two years on this issue, the carrier said in the statement. The flight cancellations are necessary due to additional mandatory inspections ordered by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau on June 14, it said.

ANA was ordered to inspect 136 engines, which includes spares, Yoshimura said. The airline has 64 Dreamliners, Yoshimura said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kiyotaka Matsuda in Tokyo at kmatsuda@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anand Krishnamoorthy at anandk@bloomberg.net, Lena Lee, Sam Nagarajan

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