Airbus shares decline after new A320 quality issues

Airbus shares tumbled 10% on Monday after the European planemaker revealed that it would recall hundreds of A320s due to quality issues that resulted in faulty fuselage panels.

The issue is slowing down some deliveries. Reuters said there’s no indication the flaw has reached aircraft already in service.

Airbus acknowledged the problem, describing it as limited to a small batch of metal panels, and said it has already identified and contained the source.

The news pushed Airbus to the bottom of the Stoxx 600 index, and the stock ended the day down about 5.8%, recovering slightly from its earlier drop. 

This setback arrives just as Airbus works to clean up a much larger disruption caused by a software glitch that hit around 6,000 A320-family jets over the weekend. Most of those planes have now been fixed.

The issue, tied to solar flares, forced airlines to ground aircraft during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, affecting routes from the US to Australia. Stateside, it impacted over 500 flights across a number of US airlines.

American Airlines slipped 0.2%, Delta inched up 0.3%, and Thales, which supplied the faulty software, fell 2%.