- Recall halts flights in Asia and Europe after travel disruption in US.
- Airbus recalls 6,000 A320 family aircraft for software update.
- The JetBlue incident exposed air traffic control software vulnerability.
Global airlines scrambled to fix a software bug on Airbus A320 jets on Saturday, as a partial recall by the European planemaker grounded hundreds of flights in Asia and Europe and threatened US travel on the busiest weekend of the year.
Airlines worked through the night after global regulators told them to fix the problem before resuming flights. Several carriers said on Saturday that they had completed or nearly completed repairs to their fleets, including American Airlines, United Airlines, Air India, Delta Air Lines and Hungarian Wizz Air. Many reported no impact on operations.
The airlines’ overnight efforts appeared to help avert the worst-case scenario and limited the number of flight delays in Asia and Europe. In the U.S., 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 the deadline this Sunday at midnight to complete the work.”
He said on X that travelers “SHOULDN’T expect any major disruptions.”
Asia-based aviation analyst Brendan Sobie said the update was “not as chaotic as some people might think,” although “it does create some short-term headaches for operations.”
Airbus AIR.PA CEO Guillaume Faury apologized to airlines and passengers following the surprise recall of 6,000 aircraft, or more than half of the global A320 family fleet, which recently overtook the Boeing 737 as the industry’s best-delivered model.
“I want to sincerely apologize to our airline customers and passengers who are affected now,” Faury wrote on LinkedIn.
Friday’s alert followed an accidental loss of altitude on a JetBlue JBLU.O flight on Oct. 30 from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, which injured 10 passengers, according to France’s BEA accident agency, which is investigating the incident.
Airbus remembers lucky timing for some airlines
The warning came at a time of day when many European and Asian airlines are winding down their schedules, which mostly do not require the short- to medium-haul planes like the A320 to fly at night, allowing time for repairs.
In the US, however, it came during the day ahead of the busy Thanksgiving travel weekend.
American Airlines, the world’s largest A320 operator, said 209 of its 480 jets needed the fix, below original estimates, most of which were expected to be completed by Saturday. United Airlines told Reuters on Saturday that all of its planes had been updated.
European low-cost carrier Wizz Air said updates had been implemented overnight on all its affected jets, and AirAsia, one of the world’s biggest A320 customers, said it aimed to implement fixes in 48 hours. India’s aviation regulator said on Saturday that carriers IndiGo and Air India were expected to complete the process on Saturday. ANA Holdings 9202.T canceled 95 flights Saturday, affecting 13,500 travelers.
Steven Greenway, chief executive of Saudi carrier Flyadeal, said the recall had been struck late in the evening, which had avoided more serious disruption. The airline said it had fixed all 13 affected jets and would resume normal operations by midnight.
“It was a great team effort, but our luck also held up in the timing,” Greenway told Reuters.
Airlines must revert to an earlier version of software in a computer that helps determine the nose angle of the affected jets, and in some cases the hardware itself must also be changed, primarily on older aircraft in service. The fix must be completed before the planes can fly again with passengers, a process that requires two to three hours per flight. jet.
Globally, there are around 11,300 single-aisle jets in operation, including 6,440 of the core model A320. These include some of the largest and busiest low-cost carriers.
Tracker data from Cirium and FlightAware showed that most global airports operate with good to moderate levels of delays.
On Saturday, Airbus told airlines that repairs to some of the affected A320 jets may be less burdensome than first thought, industry sources said, with fewer than the original estimate of 1,000 needing the time-consuming hardware changes.
Still, industry leaders said the sudden action was a rare and potentially expensive headache at a time when maintenance is under pressure worldwide due to labor and spare parts shortages.
There were also unresolved questions about the impact of sunburn radiation to blame for the JetBlue incident, which is being treated by French investigators 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 British aviation consultant John Strickland.
