Garuda continues to operate Airbus fleet despite HK ban

JAKARTA (JP): PT Garuda Indonesia said yesterday it had no problems with its six Airbus A330-300s despite Hong Kong aviation authorities banning the national flag carrier from using the aircraft.

Company spokesman Arief Hartanto said the company would continue to use the aircraft.

"Our Airbus A330-300s were fitted with Rolls Royce Trent 700/768 engines while the A330-300s operated by Cathay Pacific and Dragonair use Rolls Royce Trent 700/772 engines," he said.

Moreover, Hartanto added, the Trent 700/768 engines used by Garuda's Airbuses, had run only for 1,500 hours.

However Reuters quoted Hong Kong's civil aviation authority as cautioning yesterday that Britain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the certifying authority of the Trent 700 engine, had "also expressed the view that the Garuda A330 operations should be suspended with immediate effect".

AFP reported from Hong Kong that Cathay Pacific's Airbuses, which are being grounded due to engine problems, would be back in the air in three weeks.

Hong Kong flag-carrier Cathay Pacific canceled 18 flights yesterday, while sister airline Dragonair canceled four, following problems to the Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines on Airbus-330-300s which have suffered five failures since November.

Hartanto explained Garuda had nevertheless taken precautionary safety measures by checking the engine gearboxes after every 10 hours of flight.

"We have also refitted our Trent 700/768 engines with modified step-aside gear boxes following the engine in-flight shut down at the Trent 700/772 engines," he said.

Hartanto also announced the arrival at Jakarta's Soekarno- Hatta Airport yesterday of an MD-11 jetliner of the Extended Range type from Honolulu, Hawaii, to join the Garuda fleet.

The MD-11 ER, the second of three ordered by Garuda to replace its old MD-11s, has a cruising range of 7,200 miles and a capacity of 300 seats.

The third is scheduled to be delivered later this year.

The engine problems came to a head when a Dragonair flight to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia Friday had to make an emergency landing at Subic Bay in the Philippines. After that incident Cathay and Dragonair grounded their Airbuses.

Cathay group engineering director Roland Fairfield told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday Rolls-Royce engineers had made "excellent progress" and had presented "a very credible modification proposal."

"The modification involves the revision of the oil-feed arrangement to a bearing (in the engine gearbox). It is also prudent to install a new bearing at the same time," he said.

Tony Tyler, group director of service delivery, said: "We expect planes to start re-entering service on a progressive basis in about one week's time. How fast the remainder can be brought back depends on how fast the equipment suppliers can supply the modified units."

He added Civil Aviation Department approval for the change was expected to run parallel to the installation process.

The company refused to discuss the financial impact of the grounding of the A330 fleet or the nature of its arrangements with Rolls-Royce.

The stranded Cathay passengers are expected to put pressure on other airlines. On Sunday night 81 passengers were stranded overnight in hotels at several destinations, the company said.

Dragonair, in a statement, said it was suspending its city check-in and its telephone checking services and advising all passengers to check their flight details at the airport.

"The airline is monitoring Rolls-Royce's efforts to resolve the reliability problems ... and will resume normal services as soon as possible".

"The overall situation is that everyone in Cathay Pacific is working extremely hard on this situation to minimize passenger disruption," said airline spokesman Charlie Stewart-Cox. (icn)