Airbus Cuts 2025 Delivery Target Due to Fuselage Panel Flaw

Airbus Cuts 2025 Delivery Target Amid Significant Fuselage Panel Quality Issue

Airbus announced a substantial reduction to its 2025 commercial aircraft delivery target on December 3, 2025, downgrading expectations from approximately 825 deliveries to 790 aircraft. The decision stems from a critical supplier quality issue involving fuselage panel thickness defects on its A320 Family production line.

The defect, traced to manufacturing processes conducted by supplier Sofitec Aero, involves affected panels having incorrect thickness specifications. The scope of the problem proved more extensive than initially assessed, with company presentations to airlines indicating that 628 aircraft require inspection—comprising 168 already delivered and in service, plus over 240 currently in assembly lines.

Repair timelines present an additional operational challenge. According to industry sources, addressing the defect on individual aircraft could require three to five weeks per unit, potentially compounding delivery delays and service disruptions throughout the fleet.

In an official statement, Airbus confirmed the widespread nature of the issue: “We confirm the population of aircraft potentially impacted is both in production and in service.” The company is coordinating inspections across its global delivery network while managing communications with affected operators.

This quality setback arrives during an already turbulent period for Airbus. Just days earlier, on November 28, 2025, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Airbus mandated precautionary software updates to A320 Family elevator aileron computers following a vulnerability requiring immediate rectification.

Despite the delivery target revision, Airbus maintains its financial guidance, projecting EBIT Adjusted of approximately €7.0 billion and Free Cash Flow before Customer Financing of around €4.5 billion for 2025. However, meeting even the reduced target presents logistical challenges, as November deliveries of roughly 72 aircraft bring year-to-date totals to approximately 657, requiring over 160 December deliveries to achieve the new target—exceeding the current monthly record of 138 aircraft established in 2019.

The incident underscores ongoing manufacturing quality challenges within the aerospace supply chain and highlights the cascading operational impacts of supplier defects on global aircraft production schedules.

Source ID: SRCE-2025-1764748846425-1103