Qantas and Rolls Royce talking but legal options open
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said that the airline remains in "constructive dialogue" with Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of the airline's Trent 900 engines on its A380s, regarding compensation Nov-2010's A380 engine explosion, but Mr Joyce said legal options remain open (The Australian, 23-Apr-2011). The airline commenced legal action in Dec-2010 to prevent Rolls-Royce moving the matter to British courts if negotiations failed. Qantas is seeking compensation for various costs, including the grounding of its A380 fleet, reputational and brand damage and a loss in revenue due to capacity cuts and the inability to operate A380s on US routes. This compensation is in addition to a USD100-150 million expense for repairing the aircraft under Airbus supervision in Singapore.