Cathay Pacific inspections find 15 A350s need new engine parts

(Reuters) -- Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways said on Tuesday it had inspected its entire Airbus A350 fleet after the in-flight failure of an engine part and found 15 aircraft with components that needed replacement.

Cathay Pacific said three of the 48 Rolls-Royce-powered planes it had inspected had already gone through successful repairs and all of the jets were expected to resume operation by Saturday. It cancelled at least 34 round-trip flights due to the disruption to its fleet.

Other airlines said they had not yet been issued instructions to examine similar engines after a part failed on one of Cathay Pacific's A350-1000 wide-body planes minutes after take-off from Hong Kong on Monday.

Data from flight tracking service FlightRadar24 showed other major operators of the A350-1000 and the smaller, more popular A350-900, appeared to be flying their aircraft normally on Tuesday.

Tokyo-based Japan Airlines (JAL), which has five A350-1000s that are all less than a year old, said it had asked Rolls-Royce for more information and had not stopped A350 flights in the meantime.

"If the engine manufacturer takes any further action, we will respond accordingly," a JAL spokesperson said.

Qatar Airways said its fleet of 24 A350-1000s was not affected and it continued to monitor any developments.

Rolls-Royce had not yet issued a directive to airlines regarding possible inspections, according to an industry source who was not authorised to speak publicly about the matter.

Cathay Pacific said it had secured spare parts for the engine components that needed to be replaced. Rolls-Royce on Tuesday also noted the replacement could take place while the engine remained on-wing.

The engine manufacturer said it was committed to working closely with