the A320 affected by a fuselage quality defect

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Airbus was close to the clouds, but in three days, the company suffered two huge air gaps. After a fault in the control software, new problems appeared on its aircraft, this time concerning the quality of the fuselage of its best-selling aircraft, the A320. The part in question is at the front of the aircraft, between the cockpit and the boarding doors. A few dozen aircraft are affected under construction, but also already delivered, therefore in flight.

Airbus wants to be reassuring. These slight quality defects do not in any way call into question the safety of passengers: “Airbus is in the process of inspecting all potentially affected aircraft, knowing that only a portion of them will require additional measures.“

But for the unions, this defect remains worrying, three days after a recall of 6,000 planes due to an order problem. “It’s not the fault of bad luck because we’ve been warning about non-quality for years. We no longer have the same professional quality of employees today compared to ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.“, declares Miguel Salles, an Airbus coordinator and member of the federal office of the CGT.

This problem is believed to come from a metal panel supplier and risks delaying production while order books are full. Immediate sanction on the stock market, its action took a nosedive, minus 5.7% in one day. “This is probably because the markets anticipate delivery times and delays. And there, in this context, Airbus will have to compensate for the shortfall for the airlines and this can potentially amount to billions“, analyzes Xavier Tytelman, aeronautical expert.

For Airbus, the A320 represents on average almost 80% of deliveries each year. More than 600 devices were delivered last year.