Rolls-Royce Group Plc may swap about half the engines on customers’ Airbus SAS A380s after one of its turbines exploded earlier this month, according to Qantas Airways.

The engine-maker may replace 40 Trent 900 powerplants, Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce told reporters in Sydney today, in comments confirmed by spokeswoman Emma Kearns. Roger Hunt, a Sydney-based spokesman for Rolls-Royce, declined to comment.

 

Qantas has changed three turbines and grounded its fleet of six A380s for about two weeks following the Nov. 4 blowout on one of its four-engine planes. Singapore Airlines and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the only other Rolls-Royce-powered A380 operators, have also swapped engines since the incident as the supplier works to replace a component linked to the explosion.

 

“It must be a big worry to them if they are taking so many engines off,” said Ronald Bishop, a senior lecturer in aviation at Central Queensland University in Australia. “This is basically a recall.”

 

Qantas, based in Sydney, may be able to get more Rolls- Royce engines from in-production A380s if needed, Joyce said. Sean Lee, a Singapore-based spokesman for Airbus, didn’t immediately return a message left on his mobile phone.

 

Singapore Air, which operates 11 471-seat A380s, continues to work with Rolls-Royce and any replacements are to be confirmed by the engine-maker, said spokesman Nicholas Ionides. The carrier has already replaced one engine apiece on three planes after discovering oil stains.

 

Lufthansa, which is due to begin flying its fourth A380 this week, has swapped at least one powerplant. Frank Puttmann, a Singapore-based spokesman, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

 

Rolls-Royce, based in London, has fallen 8.4 percent in trading in the city since the Nov. 4 blowout. It has also said it will miss its profit target because of the incident.

 

The fact that Rolls-Royce isn’t replacing all of its A380 engines may mean that some aren’t affected by the issue, Peter Harbison, managing director at the Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, told Bloomberg Television today.

 

“We are talking about 40 engines and not all of them,” he said.

 

Qantas is yet to say when its A380s will return to service and Kearns declined to comment on a report in the Australian Financial Review today that the grounding will last until at least early December.

 

The carrier is due to receive its seventh A380 before the end of the year, Chief Financial Officer Gareth Evans told a conference in Sydney today. The list price for an A380 is $327 million although clients typically negotiate discounts and get incentives for early orders.

 

Emirates Airline, the biggest customer for the A380, and Air France-KLM Group fly superjumbos fitted with engines made by a General Electric Co. and Pratt & Whitney venture.