A United Boeing 777-200 bound for Honolulu suffered an engine failure shortly after takeoff from Denver on Saturday, the FAA said. The plane returned to Denver where it landed safely. Images shared on social media showed what appeared to be a part of the engine covering in front of a house, while police shared images of other debris. United said there were no injuries reported on board the flight. “The FAA is aware of reports of debris in the vicinity of the airplane’s flight path,” the agency said. The plane departed Denver International Airport shortly after 1 p.m. Mountain time and returned to the airport less than 30 minutes afterward. The NTSB and the FAA said they are investigating the incident. The Broomfield Police Department in Colorado said the plane dropped debris in several neighborhoods and warned against touching or moving pieces of the plane. There were 231 passengers and 10 crew members on board United Flight 328, a twin-engine, wide-body Boeing 777, when its right engine failed, United said. “All passengers and crew have deplaned and been transported back to the terminal” in Denver, United said. “Extremely rare engine failures like this prove there is no substitute for experience and that the most important aircraft safety system is two well-trained, highly skilled, professional pilots at the controls on the flight deck,” said the Air Line Pilots Association, the union that represents United’s pilots. Flightradar24 said the plane was powered by two Pratt and Whitney PW4000 engines. <br/>
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The head of the FAA said Sunday that he was requiring “immediate or stepped-up inspections” of all Boeing 777 planes equipped with a particular Pratt & Whitney engine model one day after the jet suffered a dramatic engine failure over Colorado. Also on Sunday, United, the only American carrier affected by the FAA order, said it was temporarily grounding the 24 Boeing 777 planes currently in use in its fleet with the Pratt & Whitney engines. “We reviewed all available safety data following yesterday’s incident,” said the FAA administrator, Steve Dickson. “Based on the initial information, we concluded that the inspection interval should be stepped up for the hollow fan blades that are unique to this model of engine, used solely on Boeing 777 airplanes.” In a statement on Sunday, United said “safety remains our highest priority — for our employees and our customers.” It continued, “That’s why our pilots and flight attendants take part in extensive training to prepare and manage incidents like United Flight 328. And we remain proud of their professionalism and steadfast dedication to safety in our day-to-day operations and when emergencies like this occur.” Dickson said the FAA was working with its counterparts around the world and said that its safety experts were meeting “into the evening” with Pratt & Whitney and Boeing to complete details of the required inspections. Only airlines in the United States, Japan and South Korea operate Boeing 777s with the affected Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine model, according to the agency.<br/>
Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings have been ordered to ground their Boeing 777 planes after an engine failure on a United jet Saturday that rained debris over a Denver suburb. Japan’s transport ministry ordered the grounding Sunday while safety checks are conducted. ANA operates 19 planes and JAL 13 with the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine that failed on the United Airlines flight. <br/>
United will launch a daily nonstop route from Boston Logan to London Heathrow this year, assuming travel restrictions diminish and demand materialises. The Chicago-based carrier will operate Boeing 767-300ER aircraft for the flights. “We will continue to monitor the demand recovery and travel restrictions as we finalise a start date for this service later in 2021,” United’s VP of international network and alliances Patrick Quayle states. The new flight would be United’s nineteenth daily flight connecting the USA with Heathrow, the airline says. BA and Virgin Atlantic Airways are currently operating Boston-Heathrow routes.<br/>
Thai Airways International on Friday said it had cut around 240 executive positions at the airline as part of its bankruptcy restructuring process. The announcement comes as the company nears a deadline to submit its restructuring plan to a bankruptcy court for creditor approval and as the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic adds to the woes for an airline that has been struggling since 2012. “The number of executive positions has been reduced from 740 to about 500,” the airline said, adding that the move would increase efficiency by going from eight supervisory levels to five. The court’s deadline for the carrier to submit its restructuring plan is March 2, after which the airlines’ creditors will consider if restructuring will proceed. Thai Airways, which has around 21,000 employees, said it had introduced a number of voluntary resignation agreements, but did not specify how many staff had applied.<br/>
Thai Airways International is planning to buy 20 to 30 planes in 2025 to strengthen its fleet and replace sold/decommissioned planes. The company expected the airline industry to recover from the fallout of Covid-19 by 2025, a source revealed.“The plan to buy new planes would be submitted to the Central Bankruptcy Court on March 2 along with THAI’s business rehabilitation plan, subject to approval by its creditors,” added the source. In November last year, THAI decided to sell 34 passenger planes, including Boeing 747s and 777-300s, to survive the financial crisis. <br/>
Italy's new government is considering taking control of bankrupt national airline Alitalia as part of a plan that would include a capital raise from Lufthansa, national news media reported Friday. "Alitalia is moving towards the sale of assets first to the state and then to Lufthansa," according to a report in La Repubblica daily. The Italian airliner filed for bankruptcy in 2017, hurt by competition from budget fliers such as Easy Jet and Ryanair, and is now managed by government administrators. Previous efforts to find possible partners, including Germany's Lufthansa and US carrier Delta, have failed. In May, Italy pledged to relaunch the airline, re-nationalising it and injecting at least E3b as part of a broader economic rescue package in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Brussels has been considering whether loans paid by Rome to prop up the loss-making airline represent unfair competition to other carriers. On Friday, La Stampa newspaper reported that Alitalia head commissioner Giuseppe Leogrande had asked for an additional E150m to keep the airline afloat. He said he would need the additional funds to pay staff salaries for February, the newspaper reported.<br/>
Air New Zealand has announced it'll be one of the first airlines to trial a Travel Pass app that aims to safely accelerate international travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The mobile app is being developed by the IATA as a "global and standardised solution to validate and authenticate all country regulations regarding COVID-19 passenger travel requirements". As vaccines are being rolled out around the globe, the app promises to help passengers easily and securely manage their travel documentation digitally in line with up-to-date government requirements. Air NZ will begin trialling the Travel Pass app on its Auckland-Sydney route in April for three weeks, with a version available for both iOS and Android devices.<br/>