Airbus confirms ‘quality issue’ with A320 family of jets days after software glitch affects 6,000 aircraft

European plane maker Airbus on Monday confirmed that it had detected a "quality issue" affecting the A320 family of aircraft, but assured that the problem had been "contained"

"Airbus confirms it has identified a supplier quality issue affecting a limited number of A320 metal panels," a spokesperson for the aircraft maker was quoted as saying by AFP.

"The source of the issue has been identified, contained and all newly produced panels conform to all requirements," the spokesperson added.

The announcement came hours a Reuters report on said 'quality issue' led to the plane-maker's shares dropping by nearly 10%.

Monday's acknowledgement of the issue also comes days after a software glitch affected more than 6,000 Airbus A320 aircraft.

Globally, the A320 series is the most common passenger jet, with around 11,300 in active service.

What did the initial report say?

Earlier, Reuters had reported that quality problems affecting the fuselage panels of “several dozen” Airbus A320 aircraft had led to delays in the plane maker's scheduled deliveries.

The source-based report, however, clarified that the so-called quality issue had not affected aircraft in service.

The report emerged at a time when Airbus is scrambling to meet its delivery targets for the year: thus far, Airbus has managed 657 deliveries, Reuters said, adding that the European plane maker was eyeing around 820 deliveries this year.

With only 72 aircraft delivered in November, Airbus will have to hit 160+ deliveries in December to reach its target.

As the news came to light, Airbus shares tanked by by over 10% as of 12 pm GMT, with question marks hanging over the plane maker's performance.

Fresh problems as old ones subside

The confirmation of the quality issue and affected deliveries is likely to make an already bad stretch worse for Airbus, with a software glitch on Friday leading to the recall of over 6,000 Airbus aircraft for critical updates.

Following an incident with a JetBlue A320 aircraft in the United States, investigators found a software glitch affected the nose angle of the A320 family of jets, prompting regulators to issue a recall for thousands of planes across the world.

The glitch, it was found, posed risk to A320 jets being able to maintain their altitude, with regulators opting for a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach and calling for an immediate update to affected aircraft.

As of writing this, the software glitch scare appears to have been mostly resolved, with Airbus announcing on Monday that fewer than 100 A320 jets remained grounded for the critical software update.

Despite the scale of the software issue and the scare it caused, the update was a relatively simple fix requiring only two to three hours, and most major airlines from India, the US, and globally managed to resolve the issue without major disruptions to flight schedules.