Dreamliner range capped due to new safety fears
Flights to the US could be hit after the air safety authority in the United States placed strict new restrictions on Boeing 787 flights fitted with some Rolls Royce engines.
The Federal Aviation Administration has more than halved the distance the affected Dreamliners can fly from a suitable diversionary airport from 330 minutes to no more than 140 minutes.
The directive, which takes effect today, affects around 168 Dreamliners, a quarter of the global fleet. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Norwegian operate 787s on transatlantic flights, as well as a number of US carriers.
The new restriction on Dreamliner flights follows concerns that blade vibration in the Rolls Royce Trent engines can result in metal fatigue and engine failure after numerous cracked blades were spotted during engine inspections.
Virgin said 14 out of 16 of its Dreamliners are fitted with Trent engines, which have also been installed on 14 aircraft operated by US airlines and on All Nippon Airways and Air New Zealand 787s.
Rolls Royce is redesigning parts for the engines, but they won’t be available until early next year.
A spokesman for Noregian said: "We are aware of the new ETOPS operating restrictions, since they apply only to certain Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine variants the impact on our schedule will be minimal.
"Like other operators of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fitted with a specific type of Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine, Norwegian has started inspections of these engines in line with the Airworthiness Directive from EASA."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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