Airbus engineers have identified defects across more A320 fuselage panels as they ready inspections of hundreds of aircraft, a flaw the company’s chief executive warns is delaying deliveries.
A presentation to airlines showed 628 A320 jets need inspections for panel defects — 168 already in service, 245 on assembly lines (about 100 due for delivery this year), and 215 in earlier production.
Additionally, some panels at the rear and other parts of the jet have been found to have similar thickness problems, though none are on planes currently in service, the presentation showed.
“We confirm the population of aircraft potentially impacted is both in production and in service,” an Airbus spokesperson said, while declining to comment on specific figures.
Unlike the emergency recall of thousands of Airbus A320s for a software change over the weekend, the fuselage problem is not being treated as an immediate safety matter, sources said.
Delivery Delays
The data is evolving and decisions on how it might impact Airbus’s December deliveries will be taken in coming days, CEO Guillaume Faury told Reuters on Tuesday. He confirmed that deliveries had been hit by the issue during a “weak” November.
Airbus is due to publish November data on Friday but Faury’s remarks leave a question mark over targets for the year, which some analysts have said look increasingly hard to reach.
While one airline source estimated inspections would take a few hours, repairs are likely to take much longer.
Supplier Issues
The Air Current reported that any repairs could take three to five weeks, raising the prospect of displacing work out of the usual sequence in a costly process needing more labour.
The affected parts have the wrong thickness following a process of stretching and milling carried out by Seville-based Sofitec Aero, the presentation showed.
The company – one of two suppliers for the affected parts – did not respond to several requests for comment. It was first identified by the Wall Street Journal.
(With inputs from Reuters)
