Merged: Qantas and Rolls Royce Secret
Dec 04, 2010
Qantas is ready to sue the maker of its A380 engines, Rolls Royce, alleging new rules for its engines mean it can only carry 80 passengers across the Pacific in its Airbus 380s.
Qantas says it will sue Rolls Royce if the pair cannot agree to a settlement figure for losses caused by November's mid-flight explosion, the Herald Sun reports.
The airline filed papers in the Federal Court on Friday saying it bought the Airbus superjumbos because they could carry 450 passengers from Australia to the US.
But the new rules mean the superjumbo is not worth using on flights to the US.
Qantas, which began discussions with Rolls Royce this week, said it was keeping all options open to recoup its losses after its A380 planes were grounded and operational constraints imposed.
Qantas is fighting for damages and is also seeking a court order for Rolls Royce to fund a $1 million credit note guaranteeing against "uncontained engine failure".
In its statement, Qantas said although Rolls Royce continued to modify the Trent 900 engine, it failed to update 23 engines on Qantas' jets.
When the A380 engine exploded near Singapore mid-flight on November 4, only one engine on Qantas' jets had been modified.
Qantas was forced to ground its A380 fleet after the incident.
The airline agreed on Wednesday to undertake one-off engine inspections , on top of the mandatory inspections every 20 flying cycles that were imposed by an international airline safety directive.
Engineers suspect a defective engine part caused November's explosion.
The incident has cost Qantas tens of millions of dollars in lost earnings due to cancelled flights and restrictions on the number of passengers A380s can carry.
What New Rules?