Malaysia Airlines has reportedly grounded its new A330neo aircraft due to a technical fault, the Business Times reported on December 22, 2024. The report comes only days after the aircraft took its inaugural flight to Melbourne in the evening of December 19, 2024.
The airline had reportedly cancelled its flight to Melbourne on the aircraft on December 21, 2024, due to the issues.
The airline's group managing director Izham Ismail was quoted by the outlet: “We need Airbus and Rolls-Royce to investigate the root cause of these issues on the brand-new aircraft. This happening to a brand-new aircraft is not acceptable. To me, it's embarrassing."
Airbus is reportedly stepping in to support the airline with these technical issues.
A Rolls-Royce spokesperson confirmed to Airline Economics: “We're working closely with Malaysia Airlines to resolve the technical issues; our initial troubleshooting has identified a faulty component, and the replacement of that part is in progress.”
The new aircraft was delivered in late November, on lease Avolon. It was the first of 20 aircraft being delivered from the lessor's orderbook.
In conjunction with these issues on its new A330, the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on a 777 aircraft resumed around the same time — over 10 years since the aircraft first went missing.
Airline Economics has reached out to Airbus and Malaysia Airlines for comment.