STORY: Airbus fleets were returning towards normal operations on Monday (December 1).
That's after the European planemaker pushed through abrupt software changes faster than expected.
Dozens of airlines from Asia to the U.S. said they carried out a snap software retrofit ordered by Airbus, and mandated by global regulators.
It's after a vulnerability to solar flares emerged in a recent mid-air incident on a JetBlue A320.
Airbus said on Monday that the vast majority of around 6,000 of its A320-family fleet affected by the safety alert had been modified.
With fewer than 100 jets still requiring work.
Sources familiar with the matter said the unprecedented decision to recall about half of the A320-family fleet was taken shortly after the possible but unproven link to a drop in altitude on the JetBlue plane emerged late last week.
Shares in Airbus were down over 3% in early trading in Paris.
Following talks with regulators, Airbus issued its 8-page alert to hundreds of operators on Friday.
It effectively ordered a temporary grounding by ordering the repair before next flight.
A technician was flown from Rome to Istanbul to replace a component and carry out the software update on the papal plane, due to be flying the Pope to Beirut.
The instruction was seen as the broadest emergency recall in the company's history.
Questions now remain over a subset of generally older A320-family jets that will need a new computer rather than a mere software reset.
