Global airlines race to fix jets as Airbus apologises following A320 recall

By Tim Kelly, Abhijith Ganapavaram and Tim Hepher

TOKYO/NEW DELHI/PARIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Global airlines scrambled on Saturday to fix a software glitch on Airbus A320 jets as the European plane maker’s partial recall grounded hundreds of flights in Asia and Europe and threatened U.S. travel on the busiest weekend of the year.

Airlines worked through the night after global regulators told them to fix the problem before resuming flights. On Saturday, several carriers, including American Airlines, Air India, Delta Air Lines and Hungary’s Wizz Air, said they had completed or nearly completed repairs to their fleets. Many reported no impact on operations.

Airlines’ efforts overnight helped prevent the worst-case scenario and limited the number of flight delays in Asia and Europe. In the US, which will face high demand after the Thanksgiving holiday period, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said the affected US carriers were “making great progress and are on track to meet the deadline of midnight this Sunday to complete the work.”

He said passengers “should not expect any major disruptions” on the X.

Asia-based aviation analyst Brendan Sobie said the update “wasn’t as chaotic as some thought” but “created some short-term headaches for operations.”

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury apologized to airlines and passengers following the surprise recall of 6,000 aircraft, or more than half the global A320 family fleet, that recently overtook the Boeing 737 as the industry’s most-delivered model.

“I would like to sincerely apologize to our airline customers and passengers who are currently impacted,” Faury said on LinkedIn.

Friday’s warning followed an unintended loss of altitude on a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, on Oct. 30, which injured 10 passengers, according to France’s BEA accident agency, which is investigating the incident.

AIRBUS RECALLS LUCKY TIMINGS FOR SOME AIRLINES

The warning comes at a time when many European airlines and Asian carriers are delaying their schedules, mostly requiring short- and medium-haul jets such as the A320 to fly at night, leaving time for repairs.

But in the United States, this happened ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel weekend.

Steven Greenway, chief executive of Saudi airline Flyadeal, said the recall occurred late in the evening, preventing a more serious disruption. The airline said all 13 affected jets had been repaired and would resume normal operations from midnight.

“It was a great team effort, but we also got lucky with the timing,” Greenway told Reuters.

Airlines must roll back to an earlier version of the software on the computer that helps determine the nose angle of the affected jets, and in some cases, especially on older planes in service, they must also replace the hardware itself.

Airbus on Saturday told airlines that repairs to some affected A320 jets may be less burdensome than first thought, with fewer than the original estimate of 1,000 needing time-consuming hardware changes, industry sources said.

Even so, industry executives said the sudden move was a rare and potentially costly headache at a time when maintenance is under pressure from labor and parts shortages around the world.

There were also unresolved questions about the impact of solar flare radiation, which was blamed for the JetBlue incident, which was treated by French investigators as an “incident”, the smallest of three categories of potential safety emergencies.

“Operational challenges that arise in a short period of time and impact a large part of your operation are difficult to deal with,” said UK-based aviation consultant John Strickland.

THE FIX IS SIMPLE BUT NECESSARY

The fix must be completed before planes can fly with passengers again; a process that requires two to three hours per jet.

Worldwide, approximately 11,300 single-aisle jets are in service, of which 6,440 are the core A320 model. These include some of the largest and busiest low-cost carriers.

Tracking data from Cirium and FlightAware showed that most global airports were operating with good to moderate delays.

Wizz Air said the updates were applied overnight to all affected jets. The European low-fare carrier had already been hit hard by grounding caused by long wait times for engine repairs rather than safety concerns.

AirAsia, one of the world’s largest A320 customers, said it aims to complete the fixes within 48 hours.

India’s aviation regulator said on Saturday that budget giant IndiGo had completed resets on 184 out of 200 aircraft, while Air India had done 69 out of 113 affected aircraft. Both were expected to complete the process on Saturday.

Taiwan, meanwhile, said about two-thirds of the 67 A320 and A321 aircraft operated by the island’s carriers were affected.

ANA Holdings canceled 95 flights on Saturday, affecting 13,500 passengers. Japan’s largest airline and its subsidiaries such as Peach Aviation operate the most Airbus A320 jets in the country.

Rival Japan Airlines has a mostly Boeing fleet and does not fly the A320.

Jetstar, the budget carrier of Australia’s flag carrier Qantas, said some of its flights would be affected.

South Korea’s Ministry of Transport said upgrades to 42 aircraft were expected to be completed by Sunday morning.

American Airlines, the world’s largest A320 operator, said 209 of its 480 jets needed trimming, below initial estimates, and most were expected to be completed by Saturday.

US carriers Delta Air Lines, JetBlue and United Airlines are also among the largest operators in the A320 family.

While Thanksgiving is critical for airlines in the U.S., Strickland said the financial impact will be mitigated for European carriers because the recall comes during a recession ahead of year-end holidays and ski season.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Tim Kelly and Maki Shiraki in Tokyo, Abhijith Ganapavaram in New Delhi, Sam McKeith in Sydney, Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Jack Kim in Seoul, Ziyi Tang in Beijing, John Geddie in Hong Kong and Menna Alaaeldin in Cairo, Michele Kambas in Cyprus; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Alexander Smith, Mike Colias and Diane Craft)