Airbus Inspects A330 Tails for Stray Tools While A321neo Coating Rework Eats Into Year-End Deliveries

Airbus tells airlines to inspect selected A330 tailplanes for loose objects; stock rises 1.9% as September deliveries reach about 72.

Airbus has told airlines to check selected A330 widebodies for loose objects after a tool was discovered inside the horizontal tailplane of one aircraft. Jets currently leaving the factory have already been inspected and can be handed over to operators as scheduled, according to the manufacturer.

Investors shrugged off the matter. The planemaker's stock closed Friday at EUR 189.90, up 1.9%.

The inspection advisory lands as Airbus works through a separate quality issue on its best-selling narrowbody. Together with supplier Leonardo, the company is examining a surface-protection defect affecting 500 A321neo fuselage elements, roughly 250 of which sit in active production. Airbus says there is no safety risk, but the checks have pushed handovers of 20 jets into the fourth quarter.

September Tally Nears Year-Ago Level

Citing industry sources, Reuters reported that Airbus delivered as many as 72 commercial aircraft in September, putting the planemaker close to its year-earlier pace. The company declined to comment ahead of its monthly industrial bulletin, due October 8.

Meeting the full-year target of about 870 civil aircraft handovers now hinges on a heavy fourth-quarter push. Lars Wagner, who heads the Airbus Commercial Aircraft division, reaffirmed his confidence in hitting that mark despite industrial bottlenecks. Bernstein Research analyst Douglas Harned flagged the long road to 870 in a September 30 note, though the firm kept its "Outperform" rating and a EUR 240 price target on the shares.

Widebody and Space Progress Continue in Parallel

Away from the A321neo rework, Airbus notched operational wins on other fronts. KLM took delivery of its first A350-900 on Friday. A day earlier, the new A350F freighter completed its maiden flight, kicking off a test campaign lasting more than nine months.

In the defence and space division, Airbus delivered 32 next-generation OneWeb satellites to operator Eutelsat on Friday, ahead of a planned launch in the United States. The units form the first wave of a constellation Eutelsat intends to build out to 669 satellites in total.

Corporate news also moved forward. Airbus closed its acquisition of French cybersecurity firm Quarkslab on Thursday after securing regulatory approvals. On the governance side, Amparo Moraleda took over as chair of the supervisory board, succeeding René Obermann, while ASML chief Christophe Fouquet joined the panel as a non-executive member.

The stock remains about 14% below its 52-week high of EUR 221.25, a gap that reflects lingering pressure across the supply chain.