Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) confirmed on Saturday that its A320 fleet remained unaffected as global airlines rushed to fix a software bug that forced Airbus to recall over 6,000 A320 family jets worldwide.
“PIA has confirmed that its entire A320 fleet is not affected by this Airbus alert. PIA’s engineering and maintenance department is closely monitoring the airworthiness of their fleet and ensuring safe operations,” an airline spokesperson said.
The recall covers more than half of the A320 fleet in service and has grounded flights in Asia and Europe and threatened to disrupt travel in the US during one of the busiest weekends of the year.
The recall, one of the broadest in Airbus’ 55-year history, comes weeks after the A320 surpassed Boeing’s 737 as the most-delivered commercial aircraft model globally.
Airlines worked through the night to implement fixes after Airbus issued an emergency alert to 350 operators worldwide. Regulators across continents required the airlines to fix the software problem before returning the affected jets to service.
Early reports suggest the emergency recall averted the worst-case scenario, limiting flight delays in Asia and Europe on Saturday. But the US is expected to see increased travel demand later in the day following the Thanksgiving holiday period.
“It’s not as chaotic as some might think,” said Asia-based aviation analyst Brendan Sobie. “Airlines were always prepared for various potential disruptions. But it creates some short-term headaches for operations.”
Industry sources said emergency repairs may be less intensive than initially feared, with fewer planes likely to require hardware changes rather than a software fix.
However, executives noted that the sudden recall presents a rare and potentially expensive challenge, especially at a time when the global maintenance operation is strained by labor and spare parts shortages.
