Airbus prepares A320 inspections as fuselage defect hits deliveries

Airbus engineers have found defects on a wider set of A820 fuselage panels as they prepare to inspect hundreds of jets for a flaw that the company’s chief executive says is hurting deliveries.

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A presentation to airlines seen by Reuters showed that the total number of planes needing inspections for recently discovered quality problems on metal panels at the front of some planes was 628, including 168 already in service.

This figure also includes 245 in assembly lines, according to the presentation, of which industry sources said about 100 are earmarked for delivery this year. A further 215 are in an earlier stage of production called Major Component Assembly.

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.