Airbus said on Friday it was ordering an immediate software change on a “significant number” of its bestselling A320 family of aircraft in a move that industry sources said would bring disruption to half the global fleet, or thousands of jets.
The move must be carried out before the next routine flight, according to a separate bulletin to airlines seen by Reuters, with the UK’s civil aviation authority warning of “some disruption and cancellations” to flights over the coming days.
It also comes during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in the United States.
Airbus said in a statement a recent incident involving an A320-family aircraft had revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.
“Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,” it said.
Industry sources said the incident that triggered the unexpected repair action involved a JetBlue flight from Cancún, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, on 30 October, in which several passengers were hurt after a sharp loss of altitude.
Flight 1230 made an emergency landing at Tampa, Florida, after a flight control problem and a sudden uncommanded drop in altitude, prompting an FAA investigation.
JetBlue and the FAA had no immediate comment.
For about two-thirds of the affected jets, the recall will result in a relatively brief grounding as airlines revert to a previous software version, industry sources said.
Still, that comes at a time of intense demands on airline repair shops, already plagued by shortages of maintenance capacity and the grounding of hundreds of Airbus jets due to long waiting times for separate engine repairs or inspections.
Hundreds of the affected jets may also have to have hardware changed, threatening much longer waits, the sources said.
American Airlines and Hungary’s Wizz Air said they had already identified which of their aircraft would need the software fix. United Airlines said it was not affected.
American Airlines, in a statement, said about 340 of its 480 A320 aircraft require the software replacement, and it expects the majority of those fixes to be “complete today and tomorrow”, with about two hours required for each plane.
Wizz Air said “some flights over the weekend may be affected” and passengers who booked via the website or app would be told about any changes.
A spokesperson said: “The safety of our customers, crew and aircraft is always our number one and over-riding priority. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by circumstances outside of our direct control.”
Lufthansa said it expected a “small number of flight cancellations or delays over the weekend” as it too complied with Airbus’s instructions regarding the necessary work.
Air India said it expected “longer turnaround times and delays to operations”.
There are about 11,300 A320-family aircraft in operation, including 6,440 of the core A320 model, which first flew in 1987.
The setback appears to be among the largest mass recalls affecting Airbus in its 55-year history and comes weeks after the A320 overtook the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered model.
The A320 was the first mainstream jetliner to introduce fly-by-wire computer controls.
The bulletin seen by Reuters traced the problem to a flight system called ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer), which sends commands from the pilot’s side-stick to elevators at the rear. These in turn control the aircraft’s pitch or nose angle.
The computer’s manufacturer, France’s Thales said in response to a Reuters query that the computer complies with Airbus specifications and the functionality in question is supported by software that is not under Thales’ responsibility.