By Benjamin Katz

Airbus has identified a quality issue with metal panels it uses to build its bestselling A320 family of aircraft, a fresh setback just days after the company warned that thousands of the jets required an urgent software fix.

The European plane maker said Monday it was taking a "conservative approach" by inspecting jets that may be affected by what it described as a "supplier-quality issue." It didn't disclose the number of planes that may be affected.

The source and cause of the quality issue have been identified and addressed, and all newly produced panels are now conforming to requirements, an Airbus spokesman said. The affected panels are installed on the crown of the cockpit and on the sides of the aircraft next to the front doors.

While a small number of affected planes are in service, Airbus hasn't identified any immediate safety risk, according to a person familiar with the situation. That's because the quality issue relates to the lifetime of the part before it needs to be replaced, the person said.

Airbus shares fell as much as 10% before recovering some ground. The panel issue was earlier reported by Reuters.

The aerospace sector has been on high alert for potential quality issues after Boeing's yearslong battle to overcome a run of production challenges. Airbus customers have also been left frustrated by delivery delays and a large-scale metal contamination problem on engines manufactured for the latest generation A320neo family.

Airbus on Friday warned of a problem with cockpit software on its A320 jets that could cause the model to pitch downward during a solar-radiation event.

In response, regulators issued an emergency directive to update the software, which led to cancellations and delays at airlines across the globe over the weekend. Fixes were required on about 6,000 aircraft -- or more than half of the in-service fleet -- before their next flight.

Airbus said earlier Monday that the fix had been made on all but fewer than 100. The remaining jets require an additional hardware change to enable the software upgrade.

The A320 family of aircraft is by far Airbus's most important and bestselling aircraft, which has for decades competed head-on with Boeing's 737 models. The narrow-body jet has helped the company surge past Boeing in recent years to take the crown of world's biggest plane maker.

Since the pandemic, Airbus has been battling to rapidly increase output of the aircraft from its factories and fully capitalize on an order book of more than 7,100 of the planes.

The panel issue now threatens to interrupt an end-of-year scramble to meet the company's annual production target.

Airbus is staring at a monster December run of deliveries to meet its full-year goal. As of the end of October, the company had handed over 585 new aircraft to customers this year, leaving it close to 300 planes short of its target to deliver about 820 jets in 2025.

Write to Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 01, 2025 10:24 ET (15:24 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.