Airbus probes A321neo flaw as repair plan eases disruption

By Tim Hepher and Giulia Segreti

PARIS, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Airbus and Italy's Leonardo are investigating a glitch at a privately held coatings firm that triggered a quality alert affecting 500 of the planemaker's best-selling A321neo jets, people familiar with the matter said.

The flaw, which Airbus confirmed on Friday following a report in the Air Current, was discovered when one of the planemaker's technicians scraped paint from a fuselage part only to find gaps in the protective primer underneath, they said.

Teams of engineers from Airbus and Leonardo are now working at coatings supplier TESI, a Leonardo sub-contractor south of Naples, to support recovery efforts and find the cause of the problem, which has yet to be identified, the sources said.

TESI did not reply to requests for comment. Airbus declined to name suppliers. Leonardo has confirmed TESI is a supplier but has not said whether it is involved in its work for Airbus.

The problem involves strengthening rods called stringers in one section of the forward fuselage of the A321neo and has raised fresh questions over quality controls and points of vulnerability embedded in the supply chain, analysts say.

Airbus has two suppliers for that section, Leonardo and its own in-house supplier Airbus Atlantic, formerly known as Stelia, which also has overall charge of the front part of the aircraft. However, Leonardo has one supplier for the coatings, they said.

SHORTER MAINTENANCE CYCLE

Airbus has said about 500 planes are involved including 250 at various stages of production and that safety is unaffected.

Airlines continuing to take delivery will be given two years to repair the affected part - rather than the usual four-year maintenance cycle - with work expected to take up to nine days including 2-3 days for the core repair job, the sources said.

That is less than some analysts had feared since the parts will not need to be removed from the fuselage panel.

The primer is designed to prevent corrosion that can appear over time in the lowest point of a plane's fuselage known by the nautical term "bilge" - an area where moisture builds up.

Its absence does not pose an immediate safety risk on a new jet but analysts have said the second fuselage glitch in less than a year could put new pressure on Airbus' efforts to speed up deliveries and meet targets in the second half of the year.

"The supply chain is still not under control; we thought it was but it isn't," aviation analyst Rob Morris said.

"It just takes one company and suddenly you have a problem."

Airbus on Friday reaffirmed its 2026 delivery target.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Louise Heavens)