Exclusive-Airbus CEO studying December impact of latest problem after ‘weak’ November

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By Tim Hepher

BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Airbus is assessing the impact on year-end deliveries of a newly discovered fuselage quality issue on some of its A320 jets after it led to “weak” November handovers, CEO Guillaume Faury told Reuters on Tuesday.

The problem has brought “another challenge” to already backloaded year-end deliveries, and the planemaker plans to assess the situation for December deliveries “in the hours and days” to come, he said in his first public remarks on the issue.

Faury said in an interview on the sidelines of an ASD aerospace industry association conference that Airbus would hold calls later on Tuesday to review the impact on operations resulting from the problem, first reported by Reuters on Monday.

He confirmed that the problem had hit deliveries in November but left open whether this would spill over to December as Airbus strives to reach a year-end target of 820 handovers.

“We had a rather weak November because we had aircraft that we had to stop in the process of going from the end of production to delivery: (aircraft) that are finished but with a question on the panels,” Faury said.

“We have to assess the situation of those aircraft and the ones that will be produced and delivered before the end of the year. That creates for December, which was already very backloaded, another challenge,” he added.

Asked if Airbus could still carry out its plans for the month, Faury said: “We will take the hours and days to come to fully assess the situation and see what is the best thing to do”.

Reuters reported on Monday that Airbus had delivered 72 aircraft in November, lower than expected.

Airbus declined comment ahead of a monthly orders and deliveries report on Friday.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Jan Harvey and Alexander Smith)