Qantas Keeps Planes Grounded, Rolls Royce Shudders

Qantas will continue to ground its fleet of A380 super-jumbo jets. The decision will keep the aircraft out of the air for at least 72 hours. Leaks have been found in three more Rolls Royce engines. They appears to be small oil problems, but the Australian airline will not take any chances.

Media reports say that airlines which include Singapore Air and Lufthansa have begun to check the identical model engines on their aircraft. The problem may be isolated, but it obviously could get worse. Airlines, in the midst of a recovery from recession losses, hardly need the problem, especially when it is married with concerns about terrorist attacks which seemed to have targeted airplanes while in flight.

The airline industry has assumed for the last four years that its two great enemies would be fuel prices and an economy that has kept people from traveling.

The IATA recently increased its estimates for global airline profits, and by all measures, US carriers had their most profitable quarter in history in the July through September period.

There were no warnings, nor could there have been any, that either terrorism or mechanical failures could knock airlines off their new and profitable course. But, that is what has happened, and each of the problems could go on indefinitely.

Douglas A. McIntyre