Solomon Airlines announced today that its Airbus A320 aircraft is experiencing some technical difficulties. As such all its scheduled international services operated by the A320 aircraft will be experiencing some disruptions.
“Already our service from/to Brisbane on Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th January has been disrupted. We anticipate the disruptions of our international services to continue through this week and including part of the weekend,” said the Airlines in a statement.
“This therefore would mean that all our international services on Friday 18th are delayed until early Saturday morning. Normal Saturday services will only be slightly delayed and we expect to resume normal scheduled services from Sunday 20th January.”
The Airlines says that the issue is to do with a mechanical fault in the aircraft’s nose wheel steering which in the airlines opinion was considered a Safety hazard. As such the airline has had to ferry the aircraft from Brisbane down to Melbourne into the hanger of John Holland Aviation services, the contracted maintenance provider, to carry out inspections and maintenance repairs on the nose wheel.
“Our Engineering Team is working around the clock to quickly rectify the problem. We are sourcing parts from as far away as Europe and we expect these will arrive in Australia before the weekend for our engineers to be able to get the aircraft serviceable again. We anticipate resuming normal scheduled services again by Sunday 20st January.”
Solomon Airlines apologizes for the inconvenience these disruptions have caused to their valued customers. “It is something that we have no control over but we assure you of our best endeavors. We have contacted all passengers who have provided contact details with their bookings and advised all passengers currently checked in at hotels to remain until being further advised by us”, the spokesperson added.
"Solomon Airlines wishes to reiterate that Safety is of paramount importance to us and as such decisions we make reflect our seriousness on this issue."