Airbus‘s share price dropped as much as 10% on Monday morning after the planemaker found an issue with some components for its best-selling A320 aircraft.
In a statement, Airbus said a “supplier quality issue” affected “a limited number of A320 metal panels.”
Airbus didn’t disclose exactly how many planes were potentially affected.
“As it always does when faced with quality issues in its supply chain, Airbus is taking a conservative approach and is inspecting all aircraft potentially impacted — knowing that only a portion of them will need further action to be taken,” the statement continued.
“The source of the issue has been identified, contained, and all newly produced panels conform to all requirements.”
Airbus’s share price opened at 201.15 euros and fell as low as 183 euros after Reuters first reported on the issue.
However, it has pared some of the losses, and the stock was down 6.5% as of 8:10 a.m. ET.
The falling share price was likely triggered by market concerns that the issue could cause Airbus to struggle to meet its delivery targets — a key metric for financial analysts.
Airbus has said it’s targeting around 820 plane deliveries this year. Forecast International, a market intelligence firm, has estimated that it will need to deliver over 160 planes in December to meet that figure.
The planemaker typically has a big push at the end of the year, delivering 123 last December. However, it would require a record output this month to hit 820 deliveries for 2025.
The A320 family accounts for the bulk of Airbus’s production and is the most popular plane in commercial aviation.
Monday’s news follows a software recall affecting some 6,000 Airbus A320 jets over the weekend.
European regulators issued an emergency directive after it was found that intense solar radiation could corrupt data that is critical for flight controls.
After some concerns that this could disrupt travel over the Thanksgiving holiday, many airlines were able to update their software overnight, which minimized the impact.
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