All 13 of Japan Airlines' Boeing 777-200 and Boeing 777-300 aircraft were retired by the end of March this year, the airline said Monday.
The company moved up the retirement schedule for the planes by a year because the same type of engines on those models suffered failures on aircraft in Japan and the United states and there is no prospect of regulators lifting the suspension of operations.
An engine failure occurred in December on a JAL flight from Naha Airport to Haneda Airport during which fan blades of a Pratt & Whitney engine broke and an engine cover fell off.
An engine of the same model on a United Airlines plane suffered a failure in February, strewing debris over a residential area. The incident spurred regulators around the globe to ground aircraft equipped with the engine.
Japan Airlines introduced Boeing 777-200 planes in 1996 and Boeing 777-300 airplanes in 1998. Since then, the airline has been switching to other aircraft in efforts to improve cabin comfort and fuel efficiency. The company had planned to retire the remaining 13 aircraft by March 2022.
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