Airbus has identified an isolated quality issue in the horizontal tail plane of the A330neo, disrupting deliveries through the summer and leaving June and July without any handovers. Only one A330neo reached Starlux Airlines in August as the manufacturer inspected aircraft in the production flow, but the root cause has now been traced and deliveries have resumed.
The disruption affected the widebody programme’s monthly output without grounding aircraft already in service. The problem centred on the tail section rather than the finished jet, and Airbus did not disclose how many aircraft required checks or the exact technical defect.
The slowdown comes at a sensitive point for Airbus’s delivery schedule, where widebody handovers influence both airline fleet planning and monthly commercial performance. Horizontal tail planes for the A330 are understood to be built in Airbus’ Spanish facilities, and the summer interruption temporarily reduced the programme to near halt before deliveries restarted.