Qantas says cracks discovered on the wings of an A380 aircraft had no effect on flight safety and it will be back in the air within a week.
Seven people were injured aboard the A380 when it was hit by severe turbulence caused by storms over India during a flight from London to Singapore last month.
After the incident, the aircraft was assessed by engineers and cleared to continue its journey from Singapore to Sydney.
But it was grounded on Sunday after minor cracking was found on some wing rib feet during additional precautionary inspections of the wings requested by Airbus, a Qantas spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The checks turned up 36 hairline cracks.
"This cracking is not related to the turbulence, or specific to Qantas but it is traced back to a manufacturing issue," the spokesperson said.
"Airbus has confirmed that it has no effect on flight safety."
The spokesperson said an inspection and repair regime had been developed and the A380, currently at Mascot in Sydney, will be back in service within a week.
The type of cracking was different to cracking found on certain A380s in the global fleet, which are the subject of a European airworthiness directive issued last month, Qantas said.
The European Aviation Safety Agency ordered airlines to inspect nearly a third of the world's A380 superjumbo jets after Airbus found new cracks in metal brackets inside the wings.
The Qantas spokesperson said the airline will wait for advice from Airbus on whether further inspections should be carried out on other aircraft.
