diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/cpdtrtst.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/cpdtrtst.cpp
index f0884f40c57..ff0f4fac0b7 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/cpdtrtst.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/cpdtrtst.cpp
@@ -277,7 +277,7 @@ void CompoundTransliteratorTest::TestGetSetAdoptTransliterator(){
     }*/
     logln("Testing adoptTransliterator() API of CompoundTransliterator");
     UnicodeString ID3("Latin-Katakana");
-    Transliterator **transarray2=new Transliterator*[1];
+    Transliterator **transarray2=(Transliterator **)uprv_malloc(sizeof(Transliterator*)*1);
     transarray2[0] = Transliterator::createInstance(ID3,UTRANS_FORWARD,parseError,status);
     if (transarray2[0] != 0) {
         ct1->adoptTransliterators(transarray2, 1);