Cathay Pacific says inspections carried out following the inflight failure of an engine component on one of its A350s have found 15 aircraft in need of repairs.

Hong Kong's flag carrier has cancelled dozens of flights since a glitch forced the return of a plane bound for Zurich on Monday.

"Maintenance activity on our A350 fleet is progressing well. Our engineering team have thoroughly inspected our fleet of operational A350 aircraft within 24 hours," Cathay said in a statement.

"In total, we have identified 15 aircraft with affected engine components that require replacement and three have already gone through successful repairs."

The remaining 12 aircraft in need of replacement parts were expected to resume operations by Saturday, the airline said.

It added that it expected to cancel another 20 regional flights on Wednesday, but that no long-haul services would be affected.

"For the remaining cancellations up to Saturday (7 September), we will provide further details by 2:00pm tomorrow [Wednesday]," the airline said.