PARIS — Airbus confirmed Thursday that new cracks had been found in the wing ribs of a small number of its twin-deck A380 planes, a discovery that industry officials said would most likely prompt European safety regulators to order mandatory inspections across the superjumbo fleet as a precaution.

Less than two weeks ago, tiny cracks were found in a different part of the same wing component of five A380s, including planes flown by Qantas Airways and Singapore Airlines.

The problems are viewed by the European Aviation Safety Agency as significant enough to merit closer inspection of a large number of the 68 A380s in service with seven airlines, said the industry officials, who requested anonymity because the regulators’ recommendations were not expected to be made public until Friday.

The new hairline cracks have so far been found on just two planes, both of which are owned by Emirates Airlines, said one person close to the situation who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the inspection process. Emirates is the largest customer for the 555-seat A380, with 20 of the jets in service and 70 more on order.