MADRID, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Representatives of one of Spain's largest unions, UGT, said on Thursday that faults discovered in Airbus fuselage panels made by Seville-based supplier Sofitec Aero were
Spanish Union Warns of Quality Issues at Airbus Supplier
MADRID, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Representatives of one of Spain's largest unions, UGT, said on Thursday that faults discovered in Airbus fuselage panels made by Seville-based supplier Sofitec Aero were consistent with concerns about quality controls it had expressed to both firms.
"We have been warning for over a year about possible quality issues," said Carlos Parra, organisation secretary at UGT FICA Seville. "In fact, it was our representatives who reported these anomalies," he added.
In a separate statement, the union said its warnings about alleged deficiencies in production processes and working conditions that "prevented adequate control and traceability of critical aeronautical components" had been passed on to Sofitec management, Airbus, and the relevant official bodies.
Sofitec representatives have not replied to multiple requests for comment about the faulty panels over the past two days and no one at the company was available to comment on the union's statement. The company was identified in an Airbus presentation to airlines seen by Reuters.
Airbus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plane maker on Wednesday cut its full-year commercial delivery target by 4% to around 790 jets after weak November deliveries due to a fuselage quality problem, first reported by Reuters on Monday, on the heels of an emergency recall of thousands of A320s for a software change.
The problem affects the thickness of some fuselage panels machined by one of two outside suppliers but is not being treated as an immediate safety issue because the parts can still cope with more than the maximum stresses they could meet.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, writing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Kirsten Donovan )
