After roughly 6,000 Airbus A320 jetliners around the world received an urgent software update earlier this week, the European plane maker has also addressed a follow-on issue on some of its other A320 aircraft. An Airbus spokesperson told Fox News that only eliminated number of jets made at the US plant required metal panels to be corrected due to a supplier issue.
The manufacturer said that only a very limited number of the jets built at the plant in Mobile, Alabama, required fixing. The maker says it was a supplier quality issue that the company now claims has been resolved. Airbus just recently opened its second assembly line for the A320 in Mobile, Alabama, with the plant having delivered over 600 examples since it spooled up in 2015.
The A320’s Unwelcome Holiday Tidings
No specific details have been released about the issue with the metal panels on the aircraft. However, the company referred to it as a quality issue and made statements alluding to the fact that only a limited number would need to replace or repair them. It’s unclear what exactly is defective with the panels, but Airbus has stated that it is going to do thorough inspections on any potentially affected airplanes.
The inspections will include aircraft in the final assembly process as well as those already in service that may have been impacted by the low-quality components. The issue is unrelated to the software recall that affected the global fleet earlier this week.
The Guardian relayed this statement for an Airbus spokesperson on the status of the metal panel repair program:
“Airbus is taking a conservative approach and is inspecting all aircraft … only a portion of them will need further action… The source of the (metal panels) issue has been identified, contained and all newly produced panels conform.”
Turbulence Hits Airbus’ Ambitions
Airbus stock prices have taken a dip following the software problem, and this structural issue appears to be pushing that number even lower. While no exact financial details have been disclosed or alluded to, given the scale of the recall, the combined cost of these two issues will likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars when it is all over.
Airbus appears to be covering the cost of inspections and repairs due to the defective equipment and components, which will prevent fleet downtime and minimize the impact on airlines. That cost will directly reflect back on Airbus’s financial performance as the year comes to a close.
The issues do not seem to have had any impact on production output or delivery timelines. This is the more important area in terms of the plane maker’s performance, especially as the company is still aiming to achieve its goal of 820 deliveries for the year. That lofty number requires them to deliver over 100 airplanes a month in November and December.
Early reports for the end of November put the delivery total around the mid-70s. Reuters reported that 72 aircraft were delivered, which would put the year-end total deliveries closer to the mid-600s. That puts the company’s performance well short of its goal of 820 in 2025.
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Wrapping Up A Historic Year
Airbus has consistently led monthly deliveries throughout most of the year, with a significant gap over 
Boeing in the year-to-date total. Airbus is likely to retain the global delivery lead for the seventh consecutive year. The company needs a record-breaking December to meet its ambitious 2025 delivery target.
In a major development for Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in October 2025 approved an increase in the 737 MAX production rate from a cap of 38 jets per month to 42. The cap had been imposed in January 2024 after a door plug incident on an Alaska Airlines flight exposed quality control lapses. That wasn’t enough to close the gap, though.
In October 2025, the Airbus A320 family surpassed the Boeing 737 to become the most-delivered jetliner in history. This symbolically significant event highlighted the culmination of a decades-long rivalry and underscored Airbus’s dominance in the narrowbody market.
