Qantas chases Rolls-Royce compensation

Qantas is cranking up the pressure on Rolls-Royce to compensate it for lost income after an engine failure on one of its planes last month.

The Australian flag-carrier has filed an initial legal claim, but says it is leaving the door open to an out-of-court settlement.

No exact figure was given in the claim but it’s thought Qantas may have lost more than 40 million euros in revenue after grounding jets using the Rolls-Royce engine. The airline is still assessing how much the engine failure will cost. Only two of its six A380s are back in service while the rest of the fleet will be grounded into next year.

Australian regulators have called the incident a “critical safety issue.” Martin Dolan, Chief Commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said:

“We have described the potential engine failure as “potentially catastrophic.” That’s when bits of the engine fly out rather than being contained within the engine. So, if the ‘catastrophic’ word is what you’re asking about, that relates to what might happen to the engine if the problem’s not fixed.”

The engine in question is Rolls-Royce’s Trent 900, which is used in Airbus A380 superjumbos operated by Qantas but also by Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. Australian aviation authorities are advising the other airlines to carry out checks.

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