Airbus, a European company, stated yesterday that it was ordering immediate repairs to 6,000 of its A320 family of jets, which are used by many people. This recall affects more than half of the world’s fleet and might cause problems during the busiest travel weekend of the year in the US and around the world.
The setback seems like one of the biggest recalls in Airbus’s 55-year history. It comes only weeks after the A320 became the most-delivered aircraft, overtaking the Boeing 737. When Airbus sent out its notice to the more than 350 operators of the plane, there were about 3,000 A320-family jets in the air.
The cure mostly entails going back to older software, which is very easy, but it has to be done before the planes can fly again, except for moving them to repair centers, according to a notice to airlines that our correspondent saw.
Airlines flying from the US to South America, Europe, India, and New Zealand cautioned that the repairs could cause flights to be delayed or canceled.
American Airlines, the world’s largest A320 operator, indicated that about 340 of its 480 A320 planes will need the patch. It stated that it primarily expected them to be done by Saturday, with each plane taking roughly two hours.
Lufthansa from Germany, IndiGo from India, and easyJet from the UK were among the other airlines that stated they would take planes out of service for a short time to make repairs.
Avianca, a Colombian airline, reported that the recall affected more than 70% of its fleet. As a result, it stopped selling tickets for travel periods through December 8.
There are over 11,300 A320-family jets flying right now, including 6,440 of the core A320 model, which took its first flight in 1987. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, and United Airlines are four of the ten biggest A320-family operators in the world. The jet’s major customers also include airlines from China, Europe, and India.
According to industry sources, the recall will cause around two-thirds of the impacted jets to be grounded for a short time while airlines go back to an older version of the software.
Still, this is happening at a time when airline repair shops are already swamped with work. Hundreds of Airbus jets are stuck on the ground because they have to wait so long for separate engine repairs or inspections. The industry also doesn’t have enough workers.
Mike Stengel of AeroDynamic Advisory stated, “The timing is definitely not right for something like this to happen on one of the most common planes around the (U.S.) holidays.”
He went on to say that many jets can be fixed between planned flights or during nighttime checks because they can be fixed so quickly.
EasyJet, a British airline, stated it had already finished the job.
However, a senior source in the airline industry stated that scheduling the repairs at a time when demand is strong and fleets are already behind on maintenance would be very hard.
Rob Morris, an aviation expert, said there were uncertainties about how much hangar space will be available right away.
JetBlue incident leads to investigation
Airbus noted that a recent event showed that solar flares could mess with important data that flight controls need to work.
According to experts in the industry, the event that led to the unexpected repairs happened on October 30 on a JetBlue aircraft from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey. Several passengers were harmed as the plane suddenly lost altitude.
The A320 jet had to make an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, because of a malfunction with the flying controls and a fast drop in altitude that wasn’t planned. The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into it. JetBlue and the FAA didn’t say anything about the recall.
Late on Friday, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency sent out an emergency order that made the modification required.
A mess of travel around the world
An Airbus representative said that the repairs would affect a total of 6,000 jets, corroborating what Reuters had said before.
Industry sources said that some airlines may have to ground their planes for repairs for a lot longer than planned because more than 1,000 of the damaged airplanes may also need new parts.
The sudden recall made waves all around the world.
ANA Holdings, Japan’s largest airline, said it canceled 65 flights on Saturday. The airline, along with its affiliates including Peach Aviation, is the largest operator of single-aisle Airbus planes in Japan, including the A320.
Japan Airlines, ANA’s main competitor, has a fleet of predominantly Boeing planes and does not fly the A320.
Jetstar Airways, which is Australia’s national flag carrier Qantas’ low-cost airline, stated the recall affected it. However, Qantas said there was no effect on their planes.
A Virgin Australia spokeswoman claimed that the business did “not expect any impact on either Virgin Australia or our Regional Airline operations.”
A passenger stated that a Finnair aircraft was delayed by over an hour as the pilots figured out which version of the software they had. Air New Zealand said that many flights would be canceled.
Air France said it was canceling 35 flights, which is 5% of the total number of flights it flies every day. Volaris in Mexico said that flights might be delayed or canceled for up to 72 hours.
The Saudi budget airline flynas announced that several of its planes will need software and technical adjustments, which will cause some delays in their schedules.
The A320 was the first popular aircraft to have “fly-by-wire” computer controls when it came out in 1984.
It competes with the Boeing 737 MAX, which was grounded around the world for a long time after deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 that were blamed on poorly built flight-control software.
As Asia’s economic expansion brought tens of millions of new travelers into the skies, demand for the two main types of workhorse planes has skyrocketed in recent years.
Originally made for hubs, low-cost airlines later frequently used the single-aisle versions. The connections they make now make up a big part of the economy.
According to an Airbus report that Reuters saw, the fault was with a flight system called ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer). This system delivers directions from the pilot’s side-stick to elevators at the back of the plane. These, in turn, govern the angle of the aircraft’s nose or pitch.
In response to a question from Reuters, the computer’s maker, France’s Thales, stated that the computer meets Airbus’s requirements and that the software that supports the capability in question is not Thales’ responsibility.
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