Qantas admits striking out A380s from its flights but denies long-term grounding
Amidst media reports that its A380 fleet would be out of action for the whole duration of the summer holidays, Qantas Airways refused to shed light on the swirling speculations, claiming that the airline never released any such timeframe.
Yet according to Qantas spokesman Simon Rushton, Boeing 747s were being prepped to take the place of A380s especially for long-haul destinations such as London and Los Angeles while the carrier's Asian routes were to be serviced by A330s.
While the aviation industry seemed to grapple on Qantas' next move on its Rolls Royce engine woes, the possibility of a long-term grounding for the problematic superjumbos emerged as media reports came out second guessing on the fate of A380s.
Fairfax published a story claiming that Qantas' six A380s could be grounded for the holiday as the carrier's published schedule of international flights do not include the problem-plague aircraft.
Rushton, however, pointed out that the story only managed to fuel speculations as Qantas remain mum on any specifics about the A380s long-term grounding though the spokesman provided some semblance of assurance by stating that "we are still working hard to get the A380s back up and running as soon as possible."
Rolls Royce had earlier declared that progress has been achieved in determining the real cause of the blown out suffered by its Trent 900 on Qantas Flight 32 out of Singapore on Thursday last week, adding that a new update on its ongoing investigation is forthcoming shortly.
Oil tainting that led to oil fire could be the cause of the problem as offered by the European Aviation Authority, which it said resulted to the failure of a turbine disc, issuing advisories to airlines at the same time to implement exhaustive checks on aircrafts being powered by the Rolls Royce engine to ensure safety of their flights.
Also, Qantas Airways maintained that a detailed investigation on all Trent 900 engines has been underway as Rolls Royce gave assurance that its own inquiry on the incident is continuing, stressing too that "safety was the company's first priority and it can't be rushed."