Airbus cuts delivery target after troubles with most popular jet
The Airbus logo
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BENOIT TESSIER
Airbus SE lowered its aircraft delivery target for the year by 3.7% after problems with its best-selling A320 model.
The European manufacturer expects to hand 790 jets to customers this year, the company said in a filing Wednesday, versus its previous target of 820 jets. Airbus kept its financial targets unchanged.
This week, the company revealed a quality issue with some fuselage panels for the A320 family aircraft, saying 628 jets contain parts that are either too thick or too thin.
Of those, 168 planes are currently in service with carriers, with the rest in various stages of production, the manufacturer told customers in a presentation.
Airbus is inspecting all affected aircraft, though it told buyers that a “significant portion” of the panels were expected to conform to specifications. The panels were provided by Sofitec Aero SL, which is based in Seville, Spain.
Just a few days earlier, the France-based planemaker issued its largest recall to date after an incident involving the same best-selling model uncovered possible corruption of flight controls because of cosmic radiation.
The vast majority of the about 6,000 A320-family aircraft impacted by the software glitch received the necessary fix within several days. Others had to wait for an upgrade.
The one-two punch spooked investors and triggered the planemaker’s worst trading day since April. Airbus, along with rival Boeing Co., already was experiencing shortages in the supply chains for engines, frames and cabin interiors that were hindering deliveries.
“The pressures of quarterly results, sometimes the pressures of competition, probably the quality drops a little bit,” Tony Fernandes, founder of AirAsia, said in a Dec. 2 interview with Bloomberg Television. “It’s a good warning for everybody.”
His airline is one of Airbus’ largest customers for single-aisle jets.
The manufacturer also faced issues with the engines on its newer A320neo jets, powered by RTX Corp.’s Pratt & Whitney, that forced hundreds of planes to be taken out of service temporarily for maintenance.
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Published on December 3, 2025
