Airbus on Wednesday reduced its 2025 commercial aircraft delivery target to about 790 jets, citing a supplier quality problem affecting fuselage panels on its A320 family. The company had earlier projected deliveries of roughly 820 aircraft for the year.
The A320, which in October surpassed Boeing’s 737 as the most-delivered aircraft model, is at the centre of the issue. According to a presentation to airlines reviewed by Reuters, Airbus engineers have identified defects across a broader range of A320 fuselage panels while preparing to examine hundreds of aircraft. Approximately 40 per cent of the impacted jets are still on assembly lines.
The presentation noted that the affected panels were produced with incorrect thickness due to stretching and milling processes carried out by Seville-based Sofitec Aero. The quality issue was first revealed on Monday by Reuters, shortly after news of a large-scale software update required for thousands of A320s.
Sofitec Aero, which is one of Airbus’s two key suppliers for these structural panels has not publicly commented on the matter yet.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said on Tuesday that the panel defects had also affected November deliveries. The company is expected to release its November figures on Friday, though industry sources told Reuters it delivered 72 aircraft—fewer than anticipated.
Despite the delivery challenges, Airbus said on Wednesday that its financial guidance for the year remains unchanged.
Challenging Time For Airbus
Previously the firm was preparing for an extensive round of inspections for its A320 aircrafts as there were discrepancies in the panels supplied by Sofitec Aero.
The timing of the inspection effort also presented a significant challenge. Airbus was working to achieve its goal of 820 aircraft deliveries this year, a target that demanded an unprecedented 165 deliveries within the next four weeks.
The inspections threatened to slow the delivery flow just as the company is undergoing intense pressure to keep production on track. The process is further hindered by the lack of serial numbers on the affected components, making it more difficult to identify which panels are defective.
This panel issue comes shortly after Airbus carried out its largest software recall to date. More than 6,000 A320-family aircraft required an urgent software update last week after the company discovered a weakness triggered by high solar radiation levels. Most updates were completed over the weekend, preventing major operational disruptions.
Airbus Not The Only One Suffering
Airbus is not alone in contending with structural flaws of this kind. Boeing faced extended delivery stoppages for its 787 Dreamliner earlier in the decade after microscopic gaps were detected in fuselage joins, and Airbus’s A380 also underwent repairs when hairline cracks were discovered in parts of its wing structure.
