- Airbus: From the UK to the US, airlines are racing to fix faults on A320 aircraft
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Airbus has had to ground six thousand aircraft to perform an urgent upgrade to the navigation control system on its A320 models. This measure canceled hundreds of flights during Friday (28) and Saturday (29).
The “vast majority” of the planes have been modified since the problem was announced on Friday, Airbus specified in a statement, adding that it is working with airlines to “modify the fewer than 100 remaining aircraft to ensure they can be returned to service.”
French Transport Minister Philippe Tabaro said in an interview with BFMTV news channel that the upgrades were carried out without problems on more than five thousand aircraft. The failure of the program on the Airbus A320, the world’s best-selling aircraft, raised fears of serious disruptions to global air traffic.
“Airbus can and should announce this; it appears that a much smaller number of A320 aircraft will be permanently affected by the software change,” the French minister said.
What is the problem with Airbus planes?
The discovered problem relates to the ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer) system, a computer that controls the aircraft’s elevators and ailerons, which are affected by solar radiation.
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The minister added at Nice Airport, “We mentioned that the matter might affect a thousand planes. Now it seems that there are only about a hundred planes.”
The company explained in a statement that this measure was taken after a technical accident occurred at the end of October with a device in the United States that “revealed that intense solar radiation could corrupt data essential for the operation of flight control devices.”
On October 30, a JetBlue Airbus A320 experienced an in-flight control problem due to a computer malfunction during a cruise between Cancun and New York. The plane suddenly descended without the pilot’s intervention and was forced to land in Tampa, Florida. The accident resulted in the injury of a number of passengers, according to local firefighters.
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The Airbus announcement caused delays and cancellations of flights around the world, from the Philippines to Colombia. Colombian airline Avianca has reported “major” disruptions to its flights as a software update affects more than 70% of its fleet, and has suspended ticket sales until December 8.
For its part, American Airlines said it expects “some delay” regarding these adjustments, but estimates that the schedule update for its approximately 340 aircraft should be completed today. Air France told AFP that it would be able to “carry all its customers on Saturday, with the exception of flights on its regional network operating in the Caribbean.”
However, Lufthansa explained: “The majority of schedule updates were completed overnight and on Saturday morning. The Lufthansa Group airlines do not expect to cancel any flights due to this situation, although isolated delays over the weekend cannot be ruled out.” EasyJet also indicated that it has not canceled any flights, having completed maintenance on all its A320 aircraft.
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JetBlue explained that it has already begun making the necessary modifications to some of its A320 and A321 aircraft. Delta Air Lines is expected to complete necessary upgrades to some of its A320 and A321neo aircraft by Saturday morning. In Mexico, low-cost airlines Volaris and Viva Aerobus announced on Friday that their operations would be delayed and that they would take measures to reduce the impact on passengers. They did not provide details on how many flights would be affected or how many aircraft might require these updates.
The A320 family also includes the A318, A319 and A321. According to Cirium, an industry consulting firm, there are currently about 9,400 of these aircraft in service worldwide.