SIA sticks with A380 orders despite grounding planes

Chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng said SIA retained its confidence in the world's biggest passenger plane despite recent incidents involving the A380.

"There's no cause for us not to take the remaining eight," Chew told a media briefing.

"Just because a car is recalled doesn't mean you can't use it in the meantime... We would not fly the planes unless we are confident they are airworthy," he said.

Chew's comments came hours after SIA announced it was grounding the three A380 planes because of problems with their Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, joining Qantas in halting operations on the world's largest passenger plane.

SIA has 11 A380s in its fleet and says the other eight continue to operate as normal.

Qantas also uses similar engines made by Rolls-Royce and the Australian carrier was forced to ground its entire fleet of A380s after a mid-air engine blowout on one of the planes nearly a week ago.

SIA said further tests on its three planes showed oil stains which should not be there but stressed these were not a risk and that the airline was taking a precaution by replacing them with new Trent 900 engines.

Further analysis had shown there was "some slight staining in certain areas where it is not a risk but it should not be there," Chew said, adding the three planes will likely be grounded for up to two days.

The incidents have thrown the A380 -- the mammoth aircraft vying with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in the long-haul sector -- into the safety spotlight three years after it took to the skies.

"The incident has been detrimental to the image of the A380s and casts a shadow on the residual value of the aircraft," said Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst with Standard and Poor's in Singapore.

He also said it would impact Rolls-Royce, which has so far only issued two statements since last Thursday's incident involving the Qantas A380.

"This incident is not over yet until Rolls-Royce is able to come out publicly to clarify the queries," he added.

A Singapore-based spokeswoman for Rolls-Royce declined to comment on the SIA move but told AFP "safety continues to remain Rolls-Royce's highest priority."

Rolls-Royce shares have tumbled since the Qantas plane was forced to make its emergency landing in Singapore, the first mid-air drama for the A380 since the aircraft began operating in 2007. In London, its share price was trading at 598 pence ($9.63 ) around midday, down 1.40 per cent.

Julius Yeo, a Singapore-based aviation consultant, said the heat would remain on Rolls-Royce to address questions surrounding its engines.

But he said the aircraft-engine business was heavily monopolised, with only a handful of players, adding: "Rolls-Royce actually has the power and the muscle to overcome this problem."

As an example, he cited the 1.2-billion-dollar engine deal Rolls-Royce signed in Beijing on Tuesday with China Eastern Airlines.

Qantas, which has not had a fatal air crash in almost 60 years, on Monday extended the grounding of its entire fleet of superjumbos for at least three more days after finding oil leaks in some engines.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said last week that early signs pointed to a "material failure or a design issue" in the engines.

He said Monday rigorous testing had uncovered anomalies on the engines on three aircraft, pushing back the planes' return to service by 72 hours.

"The oil leaks were beyond normal tolerances," Joyce told journalists in Sydney. "All of these engines are new engines.

Other carriers flying the A380 with Trent 900 engines have not announced similar moves but analysts say SIA and Qantas have some the world's youngest fleets and their decisions are widely monitored in the aviation industry.

There are 37 superjumbos in operation and airlines who have taken delivery are SIA, Qantas, Emirates, Lufthansa and Air France.

German carrier Lufthansa, which has three A380s equipped with Trent 900 engines, said it found no issues with the planes after a series of checks.