Garuda Indonesia was last night told it could keep flying its fleet of Airbus A330-300 planes despite a ban on them taking off from Hong Kong.
Aviation authorities in Britain and France, where the parts for the Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines are made and where the engines are licensed, decided not to follow the lead of Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department.
The department on Monday told Garuda it could not fly the planes out of Hong Kong until newly designed parts were fitted to engines.
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair are to keep their 15 A330-300 jets grounded for at least the next three weeks while they await delivery of the modified gearbox parts. Garuda is the only other airline to fly Airbuses with Trent 700 engines.
A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said last night: 'At a meeting of Rolls-Royce, Airbus Industrie, the DGAC (French Aviation Authority) and the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), a number of decisions were taken.
'Garuda Indonesia, which has not suffered any in-flight shutdowns, will be able to continue operations. Its engines will be closely monitored to ensure that their condition remains satisfactory.' The decision follows earlier advice from Britain's aviation authority that Garuda would be best advised to suspend its aircraft as Cathay and Dragonair had done. The two Hong Kong carriers have between them suffered five engine shutdowns since November.
