Swiss Air grounds Airbus A220 jets after finding engine faults

[FRANKFURT] Deutsche Lufthansa AG's Swiss has grounded its fleet of Airbus SE A220 jets after discovering technical faults with the model's Pratt & Whitney-manufactured engines.

The airline said it would suspend flights of the planes while carrying out inspections of the turbines. The move would lead to multiple flight cancellations, the carrier said.

Swiss said it was talking to regulators, Pratt and Airbus about issues with the plane formerly known as the Bombardier Inc C Series, now owned by the European airplane manufacturer.

The carrier has suffered multiple incidents with the A220, including an engine failure on July 25 during a flight from Geneva to London when part of the turbine disintegrated over Paris.

"Together with the engine maker we are supporting our customer in its daily operations," an Airbus spokesman said by email.

As of Sept 30, Airbus had delivered 20 A220-300 models to the airline, as well as nine of the smaller A220-100 variants, making the unit of Lufthansa the largest operator of the aircraft.

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