Airbus shares plummet nearly 10% after reports of more problems with the A320
Shares of European aircraft maker Airbus plunged nearly 10% on Monday, December 1, after Reuters sources revealed new quality problems with the A320 family of aircraft. The publication followed a massive software bug in the airliners of the same lineup, which affected more than half of the company's entire narrow-body fleet and caused disruptions in air travel last weekend.
Details
The fall in Airbus quotations at trading in Paris on Monday, December 1, at the moment reached 9.3% - the largest intraday collapse since April, Bloomberg calculated. Shares fell in price at the open and sharply intensified their decline after Reuters reported, citing sources, new quality problems with the A320 family of planes. According to the agency's interlocutors, several dozen airliners have been found to have a defect related to the fuselage panels, and it only affects new planes that have come off the assembly line. Thus, the problem may lead to delays in deliveries, but does not affect the operating fleet, writes Reuters.
The publication heightened concerns around the popular Airbus model amid the urgent need to install a software update on thousands of such airliners over the weekend.
Airbus was unavailable for comment when asked by CNBC.
Context
Late last week, regulators required Airbus to update software and replace some of the equipment on A320 models. The cause was corrupted data in the flight control system, which was distorted by intense solar radiation. The failure occurred in October on a JetBlue Cancun-Newark flight, when the plane briefly lost altitude and was forced to land in Florida.
According to Airbus, about 6,000 A320 family airliners were in need of upgrades. By Monday morning, the "vast majority" of the work had already been completed, the aircraft maker said. Fewer than a hundred planes are still awaiting upgrades before they can return to service, The Wall Street Journal noted.
On Monday, the company formally apologized to passengers and airlines for the delays: the glitch affected more than half of its fleet of narrow-body planes and forced carriers to stop flights en masse on one of the busiest weekends of the year after Thanksgiving, CNBC writes.
The A320 is a direct competitor to the Boeing 737 - together these two lines form the backbone of global civil aviation. Airbus has already experienced serious engine problems with the new Pratt & Whitney-powered A320neo - hundreds of aircraft had to be temporarily taken out of service.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
