Overview
- Up to 628 A320-family jets are slated for inspection over potential quality issues in forward fuselage metal panels, with about 168 already in service.
- Airbus says only a limited number of supplier-made coverings are faulty, the root cause has been contained, and newly manufactured parts meet specifications.
- Most potentially affected aircraft are still in production, contributing to delivery delays that prompted the reduced handover target of 790 jets for 2025.
- Airbus shares initially fell more than 10% on the quality reports before rebounding as the company reaffirmed its financial guidance for the year.
- Separately, a late-October incident led to a fleetwide A320 software update that briefly grounded thousands of jets before operations largely returned to normal.