Airlines around the world reported short-term glitches ahead of the weekend as they patched software on a widely used commercial aircraft after an analysis found computer code may have contributed to a sudden drop in performance. JetBlue aircraft altitude last month.
Airbus said Friday that an investigation into the JetBlue incident found that intense solar radiation can corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls on A320 family aircraft.
The FAA has joined the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in demanding that airlines address the issue with a new software update. More than 500 US-registered aircraft will be affected.
The EU safety agency said it could cause “short-term disruption” to flight schedules. According to the agency, the problem arose due to a software update on the aircraft's on-board computers.
In Japan, All Nippon Airways, which operates more than 30 aircraft, canceled 65 domestic flights for Saturday. Additional cancellations on Sunday are possible, he said.
The software change comes as US passengers begin flying home after Thanksgiving. busiest travel time in the country.
American Airlines operates approximately 480 A320 family aircraft, of which 209 are affected. The fix should take about two hours for many planes, with updates for the vast majority expected to be completed on Friday, the airline said. Some of them will be finished on Saturday.
American expected some delays but said it was focused on limiting cancellations. He said safety would be his top priority.
Air India said on X that its engineers are working on a fix and have completed the reset on more than 40% of the aircraft that need it. According to him, there were no cancellations.
Delta said it expects the problem to affect fewer than 50 of its A321neo aircraft. United said six planes in its fleet are affected and minor disruptions are expected on a few flights. Hawaiian Airlines said it had no impact.
Pope Leo XIV is on his first foreign trip to Turkey and Lebanon and is flying with the papal delegation and press aboard an ITA Airways Airbus A320neo charter aircraft.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said on Saturday that the ITA was working on the issue. He said the necessary component to upgrade the aircraft was already on its way to Istanbul, along with a technician to install it. Leo was scheduled to fly from Istanbul, Turkey to Beirut, Lebanon on Sunday afternoon.
In France, Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said the situation had stabilized as several software updates had already been installed. He said the impact in the country had been limited as French airports were “almost completely back to normal.”
In the UK, disruption was also minimal. British Airways, for example, said that only three of its aircraft required the update, while EasyJet noted that changes to its flight schedule could occur as a result of the update, in which case passengers would be informed.
German airline Lufthansa said most software updates were completed overnight and on Saturday morning. No Lufthansa Group Airlines flights are expected to be canceled due to the current situation, but there may be minor delays over the weekend, it said.
Scandinavian SAS said its flights were operating as normal on Saturday after teams worked overnight to install the necessary software.
Mike Stengel, a partner at aerospace management consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory, said the fix could be addressed between flights or during nightly inspections of the aircraft.
“It's definitely not ideal for something like this to happen on a ubiquitous airplane on a busy holiday weekend,” said Stengel from Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Although, again, the upside is that updating the software will only take a few hours.”
At least 15 JetBlue passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after the Oct. 30 incident. board a flight from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey. The plane was diverted to Tampa, Florida.
Airbus, registered in the Netherlands but headquartered in France, is one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers, along with Boeing.
According to Stengel, the A320 is the main competitor of the Boeing 737. Airbus updated its engine in the mid-2010s, and aircraft in this category are called A320neo, he said.
According to the Airbus website, the A320 is the world's best-selling family of narrow-body aircraft.
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Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Pan Pylas in London and Nicole Winfield in Istanbul contributed to this report.
