KUALA LUMPUR: The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) has confirmed that a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner belonging to Air Tanzania Company Limited (Air Tanzania) has been grounded in Malaysia since November 2023.
CAAM chief executive officer Datuk Norazman Mahmud said the wide-body aircraft belonging to Tanzania's flag carrier was sent to Kuala Lumpur for maintenance and is waiting for engine change.
"(The) aircraft is here for maintenance. Engine change. The engine is still in Singapore," he told Business Times when contacted today.
Air Tanzania's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner is believed to be parked at the old low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) site in Sepang.
An aviation source told Business Times that most long-term aircraft parking is located at the former LCCT site where there is low aircraft traffic movement.
"Usually for long-term (aircraft) parking, it is at the old LCCT site. There are no high (aircraft) traffic movement there," the source said.
The engine maintenance check is not being done by both Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) and Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), Capital A Bhd's engineering arm.
The Dreamliner remains in Malaysia after being sent for maintenance in November 2023 following the discovery of corrosion with the aircraft's two Rolls-Royce engines.
Air Tanzania director general Ladislaus Matindi told foreign aviation media that the aircraft, which is parked without both of its engines, is waiting for a slot for maintenance.
He said the long waiting time was due to the high number of engines requiring mandatory maintenance and lack of spare engines.
Matindi also said the aircraft, with registration 5H-TCJ and delivered brand new to Air Tanzania in October 2019, is expected to return to Tanzania by June 2024.
He expressed concerns over the design of the Rolls-Royce engines that led to increased inspection rates and maintenance costs.
According to ch-aviation, the engines that were fitted to Air Tanzania's B787-8 Dreamliner aircraft were the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-AE3.
The aviation information platform said corrosion is one of the continuous challenges found on the Trent 1000-AE3 series engines since it was introduced into service.
It added that the corrosion has led to the emergence of cracks in the mid-pressure turbine spools that present risks of engine malfunction in-flight and on the ground.
According to FlightRadar24, Air Tanzania's B787-8 Dreamliner flew to Kuala Lumpur for maintenance on Nov 9, 2023.
It operated its last commercial flight on Aug 12 last year between Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Guangzhou, China
Matindi said the Dreamliner aircraft was not sent to Malaysia for heavy maintenance or a C-check as major repairs for Air Tanzania airplanes are done at Kilimanjaro International Airport instead.
Air Tanzania has another Dreamliner in its fleet as well as two B737-9, one B767 freighter, four Airbus A220-300s, one De Havilland Canada Dash 8 (DHC-8-Q300) and five DHC-8-Q400s.
The airline had to ground three of its A220s after facing issues with its Pratt and Whitney engines in 2022.