ATCL Dreamliner grounding reveals critical Rolls Royce engine issue

Dar es Salaam. Amidst reports of Air Tanzania’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner being grounded in Malaysia for the past seven months for maintenance, Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) issued a statement revealing issues with the aircraft engine that has prolonged its stay in the Asian country.

In the statement released by the carrier and posted on their social media platforms, ATCL highlighted challenges with the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines.

“According to the guidelines of the Aviation Authorities and the engine manufacturers, it has become necessary to perform major overhauls on these engines after every 1,000 cycles. This is following the discovery of design flaws in the power generation systems of many engines in the new models,” reads part of the statement.

ATCL also says that the engine problems are not unique to Air Tanzania aircraft. "When we take the engines for repair, we have to factor in the long queues due to the number of similar engines with challenges waiting to be serviced. This takes a long time," the statement further details.

When contacted for comment on the matter, the director general of the state-owned aviation company, Ladislaus Matindi, echoed similar sentiments regarding the engines.

“The aircraft with registration number 5H-TCJ went to Malaysia for mandatory maintenance in November last year, which is why it appears to be without both engines. Due to the high number of engines requiring mandatory maintenance and the scarcity of rental engines, aircraft have to wait for their turn for engine maintenance to arrive and be completed. The maintenance of these engines is expected to be completed early next month, and the aircraft will return to the country. Regarding Rolls-Royce engines, they have a design flaw," he responded after being contacted by a reporter from our sister newspaper, Mwananchi.

In an email to The Citizen, Rolls Royce's public relations firm in Africa, LCH Consultancy, however, said that they do not recognize the issue raised, adding that Air Tanzania fleet operates the Trent 1000 TEN engine, which, according to them, has no flaws.

According to Rolls Royce’s website, the Trent 1000, which made its entry in 2011, was specifically designed and optimised to power the more-electric 787 Dreamliner with the highest bypass ratio of any engine in the Trent family and is recognised for being one of the quietest widebody engines in service.

They further state that the Trent 1000 TEN (Thrust, Efficiency, and New Technology) is the current production standard that powers all three variants of the Boeing 787 family.

However, in an earlier article published by Aviation Nuggets, the website in 2020 said the Trent engines have been plagued by challenges stemming from fatigue induced by corrosion, leading to cracks in the mid-pressure turbine spools.

“This issue has necessitated heightened inspection rates, slashing inspection intervals from 200 flights to 80 flights. Consequently, this surge in inspections escalates maintenance expenses and diminishes aircraft availability,” highlighted the website.

That was not the first time the issue was reported; in 2018, The Guardian UK reported that Rolls-Royce had discovered new problems with its troubled Trent 1000 engines, which power Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

In May 2019, in a report published by Simple Flying, Rolls Royce described the crisis with their Trent 1000 engines as "unacceptable".

"We deeply regret the disruption that we have caused our customers and the unacceptable level of customer disruption that we see across the fleet."

Boeing, in a report to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), disclosed that the engine manufacturer recently detected a resonant response in the second stage intermediate pressure compressor (IPC) spool triggered by specific airflow conditions within the engine during high-power operations under certain temperature conditions.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) responded by issuing an inspection mandate covering Trent 1000-A, Trent 1000-AE, Trent 1000-C, Trent 1000-CE, Trent 1000-D, Trent 1000-E, Trent 1000-G, and Trent 1000-H engines.

In August 2023, Aviation Week reported that an order by EASA had flagged Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 turbine blades for targeted inspections to flag a flaw that could lead to engine failures.

Furthermore, the FAA of the United States imposed restrictions on Dreamliners Model 787-8 and 787-nine, regardless of certification category, powered by Rolls-Royce plc (RR) engines.

However, Boeing and Rolls-Royce representatives claim that these issues have since been addressed.

When contacted for comment on Boeing and Rolls-Royce's negation of the concerns raised regarding its engines, ATCL didn't respond back. 

Furthermore, the global aviation company said that progress was made on improvements to the Trent XWB-97 and Trent 1000 engines, designed to address durability issues reported by customers operating widebodies in dry and dusty environments.

“We are creating momentum and a track record of significant delivery, though “bottlenecks” caused by both labour and parts shortages will continue to be a factor into 2026. We expect the supply chain to remain challenging for another 18–24 months,” said the CEO, Tufan Erginbilgic.