Airbus said it was carrying out a critical software update to a large proportion of its A320 fleet, sending airlines around the world rushing to make the changes to the popular aircraft while avoiding potentially frustrating flight disruptions.
What happened?
Airbus's step comes after an incident involving a JetBlue flight on October 30.
The plane took off from Mexico and was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida after a sudden drop in altitude. At least 15 people were reportedly injured.
On Friday, Airbus said in its analysis found that “intense solar radiation” may possibly corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls on the A320 – and that the issue affected a “significant number” of jets.
Airbus said it immediately suspended the operation of these aircraft and was working with aviation authorities while fixing both software and hardware on the A320s.
French group Thales, which makes the computer behind the A320 issue, said on Saturday that “the functionality in question is supported by software that is not under Thales' responsibility”.
The flight control computer is certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and US Federal Aviation Administration, and has been in operation since March 2001, accumulating 50 million flight hours per year on 10,000 A320s.
Thales, however, is “fully co-operating with Airbus and the relevant authorities to help resume flight operations for the affected aircraft as quickly as possible” it added in its statement.
The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority on Sunday confirmed that all operators of Airbus A319, A320, and A321 aircraft had fully complied with the emergency airworthiness directive.
“Immediately upon receiving the Airbus Alert Operators Transmission (AOT) and the associated airworthiness directive, the GCAA performed a detailed review and regulatory oversight across all affected operators in the UAE,” it said in a statement.
“Based on the submitted reports and compliance records, the authority confirmed that all required measures had been fully implemented in accordance with the directive.”
Following the measures, affected operators were “able to continue safe flight operations”, it said.
More than 100 UAE registered aircraft were affected.
How have airlines reacted?
Airlines around the world moved quickly following the recall, carrying out software fixes to minimise travel disruption.
Etihad Airways told The National that A320 flights had “returned to normal following the successful installation of the required Airbus software update across our A320 fleet”.
“The update was completed quickly and with minimal disruption – despite this being one of the busiest travel periods at Zayed International Airport ahead of the long weekend,” it said.
Air Arabia said it expects to complete all updates across its A320 fleet by the end of Saturday.
In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's flag carrier Saudia said on social media that it was “monitoring and reviewing any updates and assessing their potential impact on flight schedules”.
“Should these updates necessitate any adjustments, affected passengers will be contacted directly,” the Riyadh-based carrier said.
Saudia's budget arm flyadeal said it has completed the mandatory aircraft software updates and expects operations to be fully back to normal by midnight today, while fellow low-cost carrier Flynas, which operates an all-A320 fleet comprising 66 planes, said the recalibration is expected to result in "longer turnaround times between a limited number of flights and some delays".
EgyptAir “promptly established a specialised task force” to address the issue and complete the software updates “in record time”. Kuwait Airways said delays are to be expected while the updates are being carried out, while fellow Kuwaiti carrier Jazeera Airways does not expect any significant impact on its fleet operations or network schedule.
Turkish Airlines said eight of its A320 aircraft have been "successfully" updated and "safely returned to operation in line with the instructions of all relevant aviation authorities", senior vice president Yahya Ustun told The National.
In India, aviation authorities said more than 300 A320 aircraft operated by Air India and IndiGo were affected by the issue.
Early on Saturday, Air India said on X that its engineers had completed a software reset on more than 40 per cent of its A320 fleet, and that no flight cancellations had been made or planned – although it acknowledged that some flights may be delayed or rescheduled.
IndiGo said that as of 10.30am UAE time on Saturday, 160 out of its 200 A320 jets have been fixed, with a few flights expected to have minimal delays.
Japan's All Nippon Airways, which operates more than 30 A320 aircraft, cancelled 65 domestic flights scheduled for Saturday. The Tokyo-based airline did not rule out the possibility of further cancellations on Sunday.
In the US, American Airlines said more than 200 of its nearly 500 A320 planes were affected. The world's largest carrier by passengers and daily flights had said software updates would be completed by Friday and Saturday. It said delays were to be expected but cancellations would be limited.
Delta Air Lines, on the other hand, said the issue affected less than 50 of its A321 Neo planes, while United Airlines said only six planes were affected.
Air New Zealand, meanwhile, said that while its A320 fleet was safe to operate, it made a decision to ground the aircraft on Saturday out of precaution.
The National has reached out to Qatar Airways.
Bad timing?
The Airbus A320 issue comes as the busy December holiday season starts and air travel peaks around the world.
However, given that updating the software on each A320 aircraft can take only up to three hours according to estimates, travel disruptions are unlikely to reach elevated levels.
So far, no major disruptions have taken place, and airlines have largely mitigated the effects of the updating process.
That's the “silver lining”, although it is still “definitely not ideal for this to be happening on a very ubiquitous aircraft on a busy holiday weekend”, said Mike Stengel, a partner at US consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory.
What is the A320?
The Airbus A320 is Toulouse-based Airbus's best-selling aircraft, leading the key single-aisle aeroplane category.
The aircraft is popular among both mainline and low-cost carriers and boasts the widest single-aisle cabin, according to the Airbus website.
The A320 Neo family, in particular, benefits from 20 per cent fuel burn reduction compared to previous-generation aircraft, along with additional flight ranges and extra payload, it adds.
In the Middle East, the most notable operators of the A320 family are Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways, Sharjah's Air Arabia, Saudi Arabian Airlines, EgyptAir and Turkish Airlines. Flydubai and Riyadh Air do not operate the A320, but have placed orders for them.
Intense solar radiation is a higher-than-usual flow of electromagnetic waves from the Sun, which can disrupt the operation of technology – including aviation systems and satellite communications – on Earth.
