Global airlines raced to fix a software glitch on Airbus A320 jets on Saturday, as a partial recall by the European planemaker, impacting thousands of aircraft, temporarily halted hundreds of flights in Asia and Europe and threatened U.S. travel over the busiest weekend of the year.
Airlines worked through the night after global regulators told them to remedy the problem before resuming flights. Many said on Saturday that they were doing the necessary assessments to minimize impacts on operations.
Airlines that said they had completed or nearly finished all their software updates on Saturday included American Airlines, United Airlines, Air India, Delta Air Lines, Hungary’s Wizz Air, Mexico's Volaris, Air Arabia, Saudi Arabia's Flyadeal, and Taiwan's carriers, a Reuters report said. Many reported no impact on operations.
Turkish carriers' measures
Top Turkish airlines also said they are implementing the required procedures.
"Airbus has issued an Operator Alert Notice (AOT) for all A320 aircraft worldwide," Yahya Üstün, senior vice president of communications at Türkiye's flag carrier, Turkish Airlines (THY), said.
"Eight A320 aircraft in our fleet have been assessed under this framework and will be safely returned to service after completing procedures in accordance with the relevant instructions," he added. He also said that all the carrier's operations continue to be conducted safely.
AJet, a low-cost Turkish air carrier, also announced that this type of aircraft was withdrawn from service following Airbus' notification.
Mehmet Yeşilkaya, press adviser at AJet, said that seven AJet aircraft will resume operations after the necessary procedures are complete.
"During this process, we are closely following the instructions of EASA and the relevant aviation authorities, and we are continuing to work in coordination with Airbus to implement the necessary software updates," he said.
Another Turkish air carrier, Pegasus, said it began implementing the necessary measures related to Airbus' notification.
"We are rapidly executing the process in coordination with EASA and Airbus to ensure the safest possible operation. We are working to minimize the impact on our operations and our guests during this process," it said.
Avoiding the worst-case scenario
The overnight effort by airlines appeared to help head off the worst-case scenario and capped 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 that impacted U.S. carriers "have reported great progress, and are on track to meet the deadline of this Sunday at midnight to complete the work."
He posted on X that travellers "SHOULD NOT expect any major disruptions," though one U.S. airline, JetBlue, later said it cancelled dozens of flights scheduled for Sunday.
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 CEO Guillaume Faury apologized to airlines and passengers after the surprise recall of 6,000 planes, 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 apologise to our airline customers and passengers who are impacted now," Faury posted on LinkedIn.
Friday's alert followed an unintended loss of altitude on an Oct. 30 JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, which injured 10 passengers, according to France's BEA accident agency, which is probing the incident.
Time for repairs
The alert arrived at a time when many European and Asian airlines are winding down their schedules, leaving time for repairs. In the U.S., however, it came during the day ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel weekend.
U.S. carrier JetBlue said it cancelled about 70 flights that were scheduled for Sunday, with more cancellations possible. JetBlue expects to finish software updates for 120 planes by Sunday morning, but said fixes for about 30 aircraft would still be "in progress" at that point.
About 140 jets in the company's fleet of A320, A321 and A220 aircraft did not need the fix, the company said.
American Airlines, the world's largest A320 operator, said 209 of its 480 jets needed the fix, below initial estimates, and that most of them would be completed by Saturday. United Airlines told Reuters on Saturday that all its aircraft had been updated.
AirAsia, one of the world's largest A320 customers, said it aimed to complete 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 cancelled 95 flights on Saturday, affecting 13,500 travellers.
Taiwan's low-cost airline Tigerair said eight flights would be delayed on Sunday due to a software issue.
On Sunday, Qatar Airways also said it has completed software updates to its affected A320 fleet, with flights' schedule being only "slightly affected."
Airlines must revert to a previous version of software in a computer that helps determine the nose angle of the affected jets and in some cases must also change the hardware itself, mainly on older planes in service. The fix must be completed before the aircraft can fly again with passengers, a process requiring two to three hours per jet.
Globally, there are about 11,300 single-aisle jets in service, including 6,440 of the core A320 model. Those include some of the largest and busiest low-cost carriers.
Tracker data from Cirium and FlightAware showed that most global airports were operating with good-to-moderate levels of delay.
By Saturday, Airbus was telling airlines that repairs to some of the A320 jets affected 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.
There were also unresolved questions about the impact of solar flare radiation, blamed for the JetBlue incident, which French investigators are treating as an "incident," the lowest of three categories of potential safety emergencies.
"Any operational challenges that come at short notice and affect a large part of your operation are tough to deal with," said U.K.-based aviation consultant John Strickland.