ANA Holdings Inc. will cancel another 176 domestic flights between Friday and July 22 to inspect Rolls-Royce engines on Boeing 787 aircraft after already calling off 113 flights for the same reason.
The cancellations, due to the need to check the Trent 1000 engine made by the British aircraft engine manufacturer over a potential defect, are expected to continue into next month, ANA said, raising concern they might coincide with an annual exodus of travelers heading for their hometowns during the Bon holidays in mid-August.
The newly canceled flights for July connect Tokyo's Haneda airport and 11 domestic airports, including those in Fukuoka, Osaka and Hiroshima, affecting around 36,000 passengers.
ANA chose flights connecting big cities where alternative transportation methods such as other airlines' flights and bullet trains are available.
The company plans to announce cancellations for the July 23-31 period on Thursday as well as those for August on July 17.
ANA has been inspecting the Rolls-Royce engines under an instruction from the transport ministry amid concerns over an apparent design flaw that could result in cracked rotor blades.
ANA has been fixing the potentially defective engines by replacing parts, but the components have been in short supply because several foreign airlines have also been forced to ground their 787 Dreamliners and are undertaking the same repairs.
Japan Airlines Co. has no 787s with Rolls-Royce engines.