City traders dumped shares in Rolls-Royce on Monday after it emerged that the company faces fresh problems with its Trent 1000 engine.

The engine, which has already grounded a number of aircraft, has been suffering mysterious “surges” which could cause unexpected shutdowns.

Rolls-Royce's stock - also affected by the coronavirus - fell nearly 4pc to 632p, a low not seen since 2016.

The problem affects older engines fitted to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners and has led the European safety regulator EASA to order them to be “depaired”.

This requires 787s with older Trent 1000s to have one of the engines replaced with a newer engine which is less likely to suffer from the problem.

Swapping out engines in this way reduces the chance of both of them surging - the aerospace equivalent of a car backfiring - and potentially shutting down in flight.

EASA’s airworthiness directive relates to engines with more than 24,000 flight hours or 8,000 “flight cycles” (a flight cycle includes one takeoff and landing).

The regulator said engines with more than 24,000 flight hours or 8,000 cycles cannot be paired with a similar engine. They can be paired with engines which have fewer than 17,000 hours or 5,500 cycles.