Airbus counts cost of relying on single model

By Tim Hepher, Allison Lampert and David Shepardson

PARIS, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Airbus received a stark reminder this week that even the world’s most delivered plane – the A320 – is not immune to shocks as disparate as solar flares and metal defects.

Days after recalling 6,000 A320 series planes due to a software glitch linked to cosmic radiation, the European giant was forced to slash its delivery targets when defects appeared in some of its fuselage panels.

The two setbacks — one in astrophysics, the other in basic metallurgy — underscore how fragile success can be for an aircraft maker that dominates aviation’s busiest segment and is on track to outstrip Boeing for a seventh straight year.

“As we leave one thing behind, we have another,” CEO Guillaume Faury told Reuters, as he “assessed how many planes could be affected by panel thickness issues.”

“ICARUS BUG”

Last Friday, Airbus gave surprise instructions to airlines to revert to a previous version of software on a computer that directs the nose angle of some planes, several weeks after a JetBlue A320 tilted downward, injuring a dozen people on board.

He blamed the problem on a vulnerability to solar flares that could, in theory, have caused the plane to tilt downward – contact with the sun reminiscent of Greek mythology as airlines rushed to remedy a defect dubbed “the Icarus bug.”

The setback happened more quickly than expected, but days later Airbus was grappling with a more mundane problem that threatened to end the year-end rush in plane deliveries: the discovery of faulty fuselage panels.

The problem, first reported by Reuters on Monday, prompted a sharp sell-off in the company’s shares as investors questioned how it could meet already shaky delivery targets for the year.

In 48 hours, Airbus reduced its target by 4% and confirmed on Friday that deliveries had already slowed in November.

These two unrelated setbacks came weeks after the A320 series, including the best-selling A321, overtook the recently troubled Boeing 737 MAX as the most delivered passenger jet in history.

“Airbus is currently an A321,” said Sash Tusa, an analyst at Agency Partners. “This extreme focus on a single model presents both strengths and vulnerabilities.”

The broader medium-haul A320 family accounts for most of Airbus’ sales and the “vast majority” of profits, he said, adding that there were inconsistencies between Airbus lowering delivery targets and maintaining financial forecasts.

Airbus shares lost around 3% over the week, after falling as much as 11% on Monday.

VENDOR AND SOFTWARE CHALLENGES

This weekend, Airbus is under pressure from official investigators to provide more data on the software immobilization, as well as the reluctance of some airlines to take delivery without new guarantees on the affected fuselage parts, sources said.

It also faces lingering questions about supply chains.

Airbus is at odds with some of its suppliers over plans to increase production to meet strong demand for air travel. Unions and suppliers say quality problems such as the panel problem at a Spanish supplier highlight the difficulties of some.

Airbus said the industrial defect did not constitute a safety issue. It has already been stated that supply chains are improving overall after being disrupted by the COVID pandemic.

In particular, the fuselage problem highlights concerns about one of the industry’s weakest sectors: aerostructure companies, which make parts that are never replaced, cutting them off from parts sales that have been highly profitable for others.

According to internal sources, the week-long crisis at Airbus began last Thursday in the tense atmosphere immediately following Airbus and Air France’s appeal trial for manslaughter in the 2009 A330 crash – charges both strongly deny.

Engineers investigating the JetBlue incident had just concluded that a software update designed to make it harder for A320s to stall even when their normal defenses are accidentally disabled – echoing the AF447’s loss of control – could have removed a backup layer of protection used to correct for solar interference.

But because cosmic particles leave no trace, Airbus’s findings on JetBlue were hypothetical and there was no proof, sources said, prompting the precautionary recall decision.

“We’re used to this in space, it’s not uncommon,” Faury said. “We discovered that we had a vulnerability in the software on this computer, so we had to fix it.”

Experts said the incident was reminiscent of aviation’s exposure to terrestrial bombardment by rays from deep space or the sun, an issue raised by a landmark Boeing/IBM study in 1995 but increasingly relevant as modern planes use more electronic chips.

“This is a wake-up call…the international community needs to work in unison to make sure we understand this phenomenon better,” said cosmic radiation expert George Danos, president of the Cyprus Space Exploration Organization.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Allison Lampert, David Shepardson, Michele Kambas, editing by Joe Brock)