ANA Holdings Inc. said Monday it will cancel 176 domestic flights between Friday and July 22 to inspect Rolls-Royce engines on Boeing 787 aircraft, after calling off 113 domestic flights for July for the same reason.
The cancellations, due to the need to check the Trent 1000 engine made by the British aircraft engine manufacturer, are expected to continue into August, ANA said, raising concern they might coincide with an annual exodus of travelers heading for hometowns during the Buddhist Bon holidays in mid-August.
(File photo)
The newly canceled flights for July connect Tokyo's Haneda airport and 11 domestic airports, including those in Fukuoka, Osaka and Hiroshima, affecting around 36,000 passengers.
ANA chose flights connecting big cities, where alternative transportation methods such as other airlines' flights and shinkansen bullet trains are available.
The company plans to announce cancellations for the July 23 to 31 period on Thursday and for August on July 17.
ANA has been inspecting the Rolls-Royce engines under instruction from the Japanese transport ministry, as an apparent design flaw might cause cracks in a rotor blade.
ANA has been fixing the potentially defective engines by replacing parts with new ones, but the components have been in short supply as the durability issue has also forced several foreign airlines to ground their Boeing 787 Dreamliners to inspect and repair the engines.
Japan Airlines Co., the other major Japanese airline, has no Boeing 787s with Rolls-Royce engines.
