Airbus indicated on Tuesday that up to 628 aircraft may need to be inspected due to a quality issue detected in the fuselage panels of its single-aisle A320 family aircraft pending delivery to customers. However, the European manufacturer clarified in a media statement after Bloomberg and Les Echos reported the figure of 628 affected aircraft that this does not mean all of them have the defect mentioned the day before. According to Bloomberg, Airbus held a presentation for clients last week to explain the situation and informed them that a total of 628 A320 family aircraft could have fuselage panels with a thickness that does not meet specifications: either too thin or too thick. Airbus announced yesterday that it had detected 'quality issues' with these metal panels destined for its single-aisle A320 aircraft, stating that the incident had been 'identified' and 'controlled'. This incident comes just days after Airbus was embroiled in a crisis after announcing it would need to modify the software of the control system of around 6,000 A320 aircraft in service due to a vulnerability issue in case of strong solar radiation. The aircraft manufacturer pointed out yesterday that the problem had been resolved by remote modification for the vast majority of aircraft and that slightly less than a hundred older models remained, which would require direct intervention on the aircraft themselves. This measure was taken following an incident at the end of October in the United States, where a JetBlue flight from Cancun (Mexico) to Newark, near New York, had to make an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, after a sudden drop. Airbus had to delay deliveries of its flagship A320 family aircraft to airlines until the European summer because it was not receiving the necessary engines. Despite everything, the company had so far maintained its goal of delivering 820 aircraft to its customers. Last year, it failed to meet its target and only delivered 766 units.
