Airbus A330 deliveries slowed by lost tool, source says

A tool accidentally left in an Airbus plane forced the company to slow deliveries of new A330 jets for several months, a company source told AFP on Thursday.

An Airbus spokesperson confirmed the company had recently identified “an isolated quality issue on an A330 horizontal tailplane”, or stabiliser, but did not mention a misplaced tool.

“This led us to inspect A330s in the production process, slowing down monthly deliveries over the summer,” the spokesperson said. “The root cause is identified and A330 deliveries have resumed.”

The company source, who requested anonymity, did not identify the tool or the production site where it was misplaced. The source said the issue had not caused safety concerns, calling it “a simple quality problem, nothing critical”.

Airbus figures to July 31 showed no A330s had been delivered to clients since late May. The wide-body jet accounts for about five percent of Airbus's annual deliveries, far below its A320 family of single-aisle jets.

Airbus aims to deliver a record 870 planes this year, with production rising in coming months with a second A320 assembly line at its Blagnac site in Toulouse, southwest France.