US: Airlines across the world worked overnight on Saturday after Airbus ordered an urgent recall of thousands of A320-family aircraft to fix a software glitch. The directive caused delays in Asia and Europe and threatened to disrupt travel in the United States during one of the year’s busiest weekends.
The recall required airlines to complete software updates before flying passengers again, prompting round-the-clock maintenance. By early Saturday, major carriers, including American Airlines, Air India, Delta Air Lines, and Wizz Air, reported that they had completed most of the required fixes with limited schedule disruptions.
Airbus confirmed that more than 6,000 A320-family jets, over half the global fleet, were affected. The recall followed a safety alert triggered by an October incident involving a JetBlue aircraft that suddenly lost altitude, injuring ten passengers. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury issued a public apology to airlines and travellers, acknowledging the widespread inconvenience.
The fault was traced to a software version that assists in calculating the aircraft’s nose angle. Airlines were instructed to revert to an earlier version, and older aircraft required limited hardware replacements.
Airbus later clarified that fewer aircraft than feared would need hardware changes, easing concerns of large-scale cancellations. The alert reached European and Asian carriers late at night, a period when many aircraft were already on the ground. This allowed teams to complete repairs without major disruptions. However, the timing was more challenging for the United States, where Thanksgiving travel was peaking.
Flyadeal CEO Steven Greenway said the timing was fortunate for his airline, allowing repairs on all affected jets before midnight. But experts noted that sudden global disruptions remain difficult to manage, especially with shortages of skilled aviation engineers and spare parts.
The fix takes only two to three hours per aircraft, yet its impact on global scheduling was significant. Most affected carriers worked through the night to avoid cancellations. Tracker data showed manageable delays at most airports.
IndiGo reset software on 184 of its 200 affected jets, while Air India completed updates on 69 of 113. Japan’s ANA cancelled 95 flights affecting 13,500 passengers, though Japan Airlines remained unaffected.
