Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) has been issued with a serious warning for inappropriate maintenance work on the engine of a Boeing 747-8 Freighter.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism issued the warning regarding a repair procedure carried out by a group of mechanics on the engine of the 747-8F, JA18KZ.
The airline says tasks including the determination of the maintenance method, control of procedures, inspection of the work and creation of the maintenance records violated regulations under the Civil Aeronautics Act.
NCA says it takes “the occurrence of these violations extremely seriously” and will
review the measures to make sure it does not happen again, and has submitted a
report to the Ministry.
It says: “Nippon Cargo Airlines deeply regrets and apologises for causing such concern to the public and remains committed to improved implementation of safe operating procedures as the company takes corrective actions necessary to prevent such incidents from occurring again.”
NCA has a fleet of five 747-400Fs and eight 747-8Fs.
Meanwhile, Osaka’s Kansai International Airport handled 59,512 tonnes of cargo in August, a five per cent surge on the same month last year.
International freight drove the increase at 58,050 tonnes, up six per cent on August in 2015, but domestic cargo fell by 17 per cent to 1,462 tonnes and so far in 2016 Kansai has handled 456,804 tonnes.
Osaka International Airport, which only operates domestic flights saw cargo grow by one per cent in August to 11,671 tonnes and so far in 2016 it has handled 85,523 tonnes.
Meanwhile, Asian carriers have been adding new bellyhold routes and increasing frequencies into Kansai International Airport.
Vietnam Airlines started a new daily bellyhold route on 30 October from Ho Chi Minh City to Kansai using an Airbus A350. The carrier also plans on operating an larger aircraft, an A330 instead of an A321 from Hanoi to Kansai, which will also be daily.
Korean carrier Asiana Airlines will also increase the number of services it runs from Incheon International Airport to Kansai 21 to 28 flight per week from 11 November using an A321.
New bellyhold routes were also launched to China in the summer as on 1 August Juneyao Airlines started a four flights a week service from Nanjing to Kansai using an A320.
Tianjin Airlines launched a two flights a week service on 3 July to Kansai from Dalian using an A320 and Hong Kong Airlines started daily flights from Hong Kong to Kansai on 15 July using an A330.
