Up to 14 Rolls-Royce engines on Qantas A380 superjumbos will need to be inspected and potentially replaced, Australia's Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce said on Thursday.
The aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce had indicated about 40 A380 engines needed to be swapped worldwide, Joyce said.
"Rolls-Royce is still working through the criteria for which engines need to be changed," Joyce told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
"We're hoping to understand precisely which engines need to be replaced and therefore we can have a firm timeline for when they will be back in the air, but we are still a few days away from that," Joyce said.
Qantas grounded its six A380s on Nov. 4 after an engine exploded on board a Qantas A380 flight from Singapore to Sydney.
Joyce on Thursday said airline capacity had been reduced by four to five percent due to the grounding of its A380 fleet.
Qantas would seek compensation from Rolls-Royce once the A380s were back in the air, Joyce said, adding that although it was still too early to determine the financial impact of having six A380s on the ground.
Rolls-Royce was responsible for all maintenance on the A380 engines, Joyce said.
"We're taking the engines off and making sure this modification is in place before the engines are put back on the aircraft," Joyce said
Qantas is in talks with the aircraft manufacturer Airbus to replace some of its existing Rolls-Royce engines with new engines from planes still in production on the Airbus assembly line.
