Khaberni - Airbus Europe announced on Friday that it has ordered immediate repairs for six thousand of its widely used A320 model aircraft.
This comes through a comprehensive recall process affecting more than half of the global fleet, threatening to cause disruptions during the busiest travel weekend in the United States.
This setback appears to be among the largest recall operations in Airbus's 55-year history and comes weeks after the A320 surpassed the Boeing 737 as the model with the highest delivery of aircraft.
3,000 aircraft in the air
As Airbus issued its directions, there were about three thousand A320 family aircraft in the air.
According to a bulletin directed at airlines and seen by Reuters, the repair primarily involves returning to previous software, but it must be implemented before the aircraft can fly again. Airlines today, Friday, have said repairs may cause delays or flight cancellations.
American Airlines, the world’s largest operator of A320 aircraft, said about 340 out of 480 A320 aircraft would need repairs. They mostly expect these repairs to be completed by Saturday, with each aircraft taking about two hours.
Other airlines stated that they would temporarily withdraw their aircraft from service to carry out the repairs, including Lufthansa of Germany and IndiGo of India and EasyJet.
Flight Disruptions
The Colombian airline (Avianca) stated that the recall affected more than 70% of its fleet, about 100 aircraft, causing significant disruptions over the next ten days, forcing the company to halt travel ticket sales until the eighth of December.
There are about 11,300 A320 family aircraft in operation.
For about two-thirds of the affected aircraft, the recall would theoretically lead to a short-term halt, as airlines would return to the previous software version, according to industry sources.
A recent incident involving an A320 family aircraft revealed that sunlight could spoil important data for controlling flight devices, stated Airbus.
Industry sources mentioned that the incident leading to the unplanned repair involved a JetBlue flight from Mexico to New Jersey on October 30, during which a number of passengers were injured after a sharp loss of altitude.
The flight made an emergency landing in Florida after a control problem and a sudden drop in altitude without order, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate.
Late Friday, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued an emergency directive requiring the repair, and it is expected that the Federal Aviation Administration will follow suit.
A spokesperson for Airbus estimated that the repairs would affect about 6,000 aircraft, confirming what was reported earlier by Reuters.
The sources stated that the temporary halt of flights for repairs for some airlines might be much longer because more than 1,000 of the affected aircraft might also have to change hardware, as mentioned by the sources.
The computer manufacturer, Thales of France, responded to a question from Reuters saying that the computer complies with Airbus specifications and that the function in question is supported by software not within Thales' responsibilities.
