PARIS – Airbus has identified quality lapses on a tail section of its A330neo aircraft, bringing deliveries of the widebody jet to a near halt over the past three months.
The issue concerns a horizontal tail plane on the model, forcing the company to inspect the planes during their production process and slowing down monthly handovers, Airbus said in a statement in response to a query by Bloomberg News.
“The root cause is identified, and A330 deliveries have resumed,” Airbus said, calling the quality issue “isolated”.
The manufacturer did not deliver any A330neos in June and July, and just one in August, to Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines, according to people familiar with the situation, who asked not be identified discussing non-public information.
Airbus declined to comment on deliveries for August ahead of the official publication in the coming days. The stock dropped as much as 1.8 per cent following the revelation.
The company handed over about 57 aircraft in total in August, the people said, a slower rate than what it achieved in July.
Airbus said then that it can achieve its delivery target for 2026 of about 870 commercial aircraft, while providing a range of 850 to 890 units that suggests there is scope to exceed that goal.
The Airbus A330neo is an upgraded version of the company’s older widebody model, featuring new engines and an improved wing design, alongside other tweaks.
The plane sits between the company’s A320 family of narrow-body jets and the flagship A350 widebody, which features more powerful engines and more advanced materials that make it lighter.
Airbus builds roughly four A330neos a month and has plans to increase output to five in 2029, as the tried-and tested widebody model enjoys a resurgence in popularity with airlines retiring their older A330ceo jets or looking for a cheaper alternative to the A350 or Boeing’s 787 competitor.
Quality snags are not unusual in the notoriously exacting aviation industry.
The company has also been grappling with quality issues on its best-selling A320 family jets in the past year and constraints in engine supplies from Pratt & Whitney, forcing Airbus to low-ball its annual delivery goal for 2026.
In June, chief executive Guillaume Faury told employees that the planemaker must improve its performance in the latter half of 2026 after a disappointing first quarter.
Boeing has also grappled with sporadic lapses, including a wiring flaw that it found on its 737 Max jets earlier in 2026 and temporarily impacted deliveries. BLOOMBERG
