By Maitane Sardon
Airlines that operate the Airbus A320 aircraft family reported limited travel disruption after they moved swiftly to complete software updates to fix an issue that hit thousands of planes.
Regulators late last week issued an emergency order requiring airlines operating aircraft from the Airbus A320 family of planes to make certain software or hardware updates by Sunday. The mandate came after it was discovered that interference from intense solar radiation had corrupted data used for flight controls on an Airbus jet operated by JetBlue Airways in October.
Aircraft maker Airbus said that around 6,000 of its A320 family aircraft required either software or hardware fixes to address the issue. By Monday morning, the "vast majority" of those fixes had been completed, it said. Fewer than 100 planes are still awaiting modifications before returning to service, the company added.
The bulk of Airbus A320s operate in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, according to aviation-analytics company Cirium. Most of the largest European carriers operating the Airbus type said they maintained normal operations after completing the necessary updates.
British Airways, Iberia and Vueling--owned by International Consolidated Airlines Group, or IAG--all said they hadn't experienced delays or cancellations. Only three planes operated by British Airways had required software updates, which had been successfully completed by Monday, a person familiar with the situation said.
A spokesperson for London's Heathrow Airport said flight operations continued as usual over the weekend, with minimal disruption experienced. No impact was reported at Frankfurt Airport, a spokesperson for Germany's busiest airport said.
EasyJet, one of the largest operators of A320 aircraft, said it had worked with regulators and Airbus to determine the necessary actions and finished all the required software updates over the weekend. It said the changes allowed its flying schedule to continue uninterrupted and that it expects no impact on revenue from the issue.
Finnair said 12 aircraft within its fleet were affected and that it delayed all of its Airbus narrowbody flights when it was alerted of the issue and ended up cancelling one flight. The Finnish carrier completed the software update between Friday and Saturday, it said.
Italian carrier ITA Airways said its flight schedule remained unchanged and that passengers didn't experience any delays or cancellations after it launched an extraordinary maintenance program on Saturday morning to update some of its aircraft.
London-listed Wizz Air said it had identified 83 operational aircraft requiring the software changes, and reported no cancellations resulting from the work.
The Netherlands' flag carrier KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said it operates 11 A321neo aircraft, which run with a different software configuration that avoids the problem.
The three largest U.S. airlines had said over the weekend that they expected little impact from the issue. Delta Air Lines said it anticipated any impact to be limited, American Airlines said it didn't expect any cancellations, and United Airlines said it expected minor disruption to a few flights.
Write to Maitane Sardon at maitane.sardon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-01-25 0743ET
