Qantas has announced it plans to sue Rolls Royce over an engine fire last month on one of its A380 aircraft.
The Australian carrier has filed a legal claim against Rolls Royce, after issues with the QF32 Trent 900 engine, manufactured by the company, forced the airline to ground its fleet of A380 aircraft.
In a statement, Qantas said: “Today's action allows Qantas to keep all options available to the company to recover losses, as a result of the grounding of the A380 fleet and the operational constraints currently imposed on A380 services.”
Despite the court filing, Qantas said it “remains committed to working with Rolls-Royce on the Trent 900 inspection program, in consultation with Airbus and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).”
The airline has also started talks with Rolls Royce directly, on the "financial and operational impacts" of the incident, which could end in a commercial settlement and stop the case going to court.
Hannah Clipston, partner for the hotels and leisure team at law firm Thomas Eggar LLP, said Qantas’ legal threats will increase the pressure on Rolls Royce to agree on a commercial settlement.
“It will be interesting to see how Rolls Royce reacts," she said. "In legal terms, the contract between Qantas and Rolls Royce will continue to be heavily scrutinised by the lawyers, particularly the clauses that deal with the types of loss that can be claimed and what cannot.
“Rolls Royce will also be considering the possibility of other potential claims from Airbus, Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines. Ultimately, Rolls Royce may well consider that a global settlement deal is the best option at this stage to limit any further damage to its brand.”
Qantas plans to start flights with two of its A380s on the London-Singapore-Sydney route, but a further four aircraft will remain grounded.
The airline said: “In line with its conservative approach to operational safety, Qantas is voluntarily suspending A380 services on routes that regularly require use of maximum certified engine thrust and will do so until further operational experience is gained or possible additional changes are made to engines.”