The world’s largest A320 operator, American Airlines , said some 340 of its 480 A320 aircraft would need the fix. It said it mostly expected these to be completed by Saturday with about two hours required for each plane.
Other airlines said they would take planes briefly out of service to do the repairs, including Germany’s Lufthansa , India’s IndiGo and UK-based easyJet.
Colombian carrier Avianca said the recall affected more than 70 per cent of its fleet, prompting it to close ticket sales for travel dates through Dec 8.
There are around 11,300 A320-family jets in operation, including 6,440 of the core A320 model, which first flew in 1987. Four of the world’s 10 biggest A320-family operators are major US airlines: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue and United Airlines. Chinese, European and Indian carriers are also among the jet’s biggest customers.
For about two-thirds of the affected jets, the recall will result in a brief grounding as airlines revert to a previous software version, industry sources said.
Still, that comes at a time when airline repair shops are already overrun by maintenance work, as hundreds of Airbus jets have been grounded due to long waiting times for separate engine repairs or inspections. The industry also has labour shortages.
“The timing is definitely not ideal for an issue like this to arise on one of the most ubiquitous aircraft around the (US) holidays,” Mike Stengel of AeroDynamic Advisory said.
But due to the quick repair time, many jets can be fixed between scheduled flights or during overnight checks, he added.
Britain’s easyJet said it had already completed the work.
A senior airline industry source, however, said sequencing the repairs at a time when demand is high and fleets are already facing maintenance delays was expected to be a major challenge.
Aviation analyst Rob Morris said there were questions over how much hangar capacity would immediately be available.
JETBLUE INCIDENT LEADS TO PROBE
Airbus said a recent incident had revealed that solar flares may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.
Industry sources said the incident that triggered the unexpected repair action involved a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, on Oct 30, in which several passengers were hurt following a sharp loss of altitude.
That A320 jet made an emergency landing at Tampa, Florida, after a flight control problem and a sudden uncommanded drop in altitude, prompting a Federal Aviation Administration investigation. JetBlue and the FAA had no comment on the recall.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency late on Friday issued an emergency directive making the fix mandatory.
“TWO HOUR REPAIR”
An Airbus spokesperson estimated the repairs would affect 6,000 jets in total, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
The temporary groundings for repairs for some airlines could be much longer since more than 1,000 of the affected jets may also have to have hardware changed, industry sources said.
The abrupt recall sent ripples around the world.
A Finnair flight was delayed almost an hour as pilots established which software version they had, a passenger said. Air New Zealand warned of a number of cancellations.
Air France said it was cancelling 35 flights, 5 per cent of the airline’s daily total. Mexico’s Volaris said it would be hit by delays or cancellations for up to 72 hours.
Source: CNA
