- The recall halts flights in Asia and Europe after travel disruption in the United States.
- Airbus recalls 6,000 A320 family aircraft from the market to update their software.
- The JetBlue incident exposed a vulnerability in the flight control software.
Global airlines scrambled to fix a software problem on Airbus A320 planes on Saturday, after a partial recall by the European planemaker grounded hundreds of flights in Asia and Europe and threatened travel to the United States during the busiest weekend of the year.
Airlines worked through the night after global regulators told them to remedy the problem before resuming flights. Several airlines said Saturday they had completed or nearly completed repairs to their fleets, including American Airlines, United Airlines, Air India, Delta Air Lines and Hungary’s Wizz Air. Many reported no impact on operations.
The airlines’ overnight effort appeared to help avoid the worst-case scenario and limited the number of flight delays in Asia and Europe. In the United States, which will face high demand after the Thanksgiving holiday period, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said affected U.S. carriers “have reported great progress and are on track to meet this Sunday’s midnight deadline to complete the work.”
He said in X that travelers “SHOULD NOT expect major disruptions.”
Asia-based aviation analyst Brendan Sobie said the upgrade was “not as chaotic as some people might think,” although it “creates some short-term headaches for operations.”
Airbus AIR.PA CEO Guillaume Faury apologized to airlines and passengers after the surprise retirement of 6,000 aircraft or more than half of the global A320 family fleet, which recently overtook the Boeing 737 as the industry’s most delivered model.
“I want to sincerely apologize to our airline customers and passengers who are affected now,” Faury posted on LinkedIn.
Friday’s alert followed an unintentional loss of altitude on an Oct. 30 JetBlue flight JBLU.O from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, that injured 10 passengers, according to French accident agency BEA, which is investigating the incident.
Airbus remembers a lucky moment for some airlines
The alert came at a time of day when many European and Asian airlines are reducing their schedules, which mostly do not require short- and medium-haul planes like the A320 to fly at night, leaving time for repairs.
In the United States, however, it came on the day before the busy Thanksgiving travel weekend.
American Airlines, the world’s largest A320 operator, said 209 of its 480 planes needed the repair, below initial estimates, most of which it expected to complete by Saturday. United Airlines told Reuters on Saturday that all of its planes had been upgraded.
European low-fare airline Wizz Air said the upgrades had been rolled out overnight to all of its affected planes, and AirAsia, one of the world’s biggest A320 customers, said it aimed to complete the repairs within 48 hours. India’s aviation regulator said on Saturday that airlines IndiGo and Air India were expected to complete the process on Saturday. ANA Holdings 9202.T canceled 95 flights on Saturday, affecting 13,500 travelers.
Steven Greenway, chief executive of Saudi airline Flyadeal, said the recall occurred late in the evening, preventing more serious disruptions. The airline said it had repaired all 13 affected planes and would resume normal operations at midnight.
“It was a great team effort, but our luck was also in good timing,” Greenway told Reuters.
Airlines must revert to an older version of software on a computer that helps determine the nose angle of affected planes, and in some cases they must also change the hardware itself, mostly on older planes in service. The fix must be completed before planes can fly with passengers again, a process that requires two to three hours per plane.
Globally, there are around 11,300 single-aisle aircraft in service, including 6,440 of the flagship A320 model. These include some of the largest and busiest low-cost airlines.
Tracking data from Cirium and FlightAware showed that most global airports are operating with good to moderate levels of delays.
On Saturday, Airbus was telling airlines that repairs to some of the affected A320 planes could be less onerous than initially thought, industry sources said, and fewer than the original estimate of 1,000 would require the time-consuming hardware changes.
Still, industry executives said the abrupt action was a rare and potentially costly headache at a time when maintenance is under pressure around the world due to labor and parts shortages.
There were also unresolved questions about the radiation impact of the solar flares attributed to the JetBlue incident, which French investigators are treating as an “incident,” the lowest of three categories of potential safety emergency.
“Any operational challenge that comes at short notice and affects a large part of your operation is difficult to deal with,” said UK-based aviation consultant John Strickland.
