Australian carrier Qantas said yesterday that a “one-off problem” had put back the delivery of its newest A380 airplane, in a fresh snag for the troubled superjumbo fleet.

An airline official said a “small anomaly” with the aircraft, reported by local media to be a faulty oil tube in the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine, had forced the short delay.

“It was a minor issue. A one-off problem was identified, and the issue has been rectified,” remarked the official. “We are still expecting delivery by mid-December.”

Qantas chief Alan Joyce told The Australian newspaper that the problem – reportedly discovered on an A380 still on the Airbus factory floor in Toulouse – had also been found on a number of planes run by various airlines.

“I think it’s good that we’re homing in on it because it means we can replace the engines before they’re an issue,” he said.

The Qantas official said the discovery was “part of the ongoing inspection programme” into Rolls-Royce’s Trent 900 engines, after one exploded over Indonesia last month, forcing a Qantas A380 to make an emergency landing.