Rolls-Royce Market Price Plunges After Engine Trouble

Rolls-Royce saw £2.7 billion knocked off its stock market value this week after a major customer said it had discovered problems with one of its engines, The Telegraph reported.

Cathay did not describe the component in detail but said it was the first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide. I Photo: Cathay Pacific Facebook

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flag carrier, canceled 24 flights and said it was conducting “precautionary” inspections of all its Airbus A350 planes, which use Rolls-Royce engines, after identifying a fault.

The failure was identified in an aircraft that was forced to return to Hong Kong during a flight to Zurich earlier in the week.

Cathay did not describe the component in detail but said it was the first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide.

“Thus far, we have identified a number of the same engine components that need to be replaced. Spare parts have been secured and repair work is underway,” the airline said.

Cathay stated it had “fully complied with all maintenance requirements of the engine manufacturer, and stringent maintenance procedures are in place to ensure that our fleet is always operated safely.”

Rolls-Royce shares closed down 6.5% in London on Monday after losing as much as 8.2% following the news.

Investors may fear a return to the years of trouble faced by Rolls-Royce over its Trent 1000 engines, which suffered from turbine blades cracking and faster-than-expected wear and tear.