Airbus fleets resumed normal operations Monday after the planemaker rushed through software fixes, following a JetBlue A320 incident linked to solar flare vulnerability.
Dozens of airlines worldwide completed the regulator‑mandated retrofit, as Airbus sought to shift safety scrutiny long centered on rival Boeing.
Sources familiar with the matter said the unprecedented decision to recall about half the A320-family fleet, or 6,000 jets, was taken shortly after the possible but unproven link to a drop in altitude on the JetBlue jet emerged late last week.
Following talks with regulators, Airbus issued its 8-page alert to hundreds of operators on Friday, effectively ordering a temporary grounding by ordering the repair before next flight.
The instruction was seen as the broadest emergency recall in the company’s history and raised immediate concerns of travel disruption particularly during the busy U.S. Thanksgiving weekend.
Impact Revised Down
At first airlines struggled to gauge the impact since the blanket alert lacked affected jets’ serial numbers. A Finnair passenger said a flight was delayed on the tarmac for checks.
Over 24 hours, engineers zeroed in on individual jets.
Several airlines revised down estimates of the number of jets impacted and time needed for the work, which Airbus initially pegged at three hours per plane.
The fix involved reverting to an earlier version of software that handles the nose angle. It involves uploading the previous version via a cable from a device called a data loader, which is carried into the cockpit to prevent cyberattacks.
At least one major airline faced delays because it lacked enough data loaders to handle dozens of jets in such a short time, according to an executive speaking privately.
Industry executives said the weekend furore highlighted changes in the industry’s playbook since the Boeing 737 MAX crisis, in which the U.S. planemaker was heavily criticised over its handling of fatal crashes blamed on a software design error.
It is the first time Airbus has had to deal with global safety attention on such a scale since that crisis. CEO Guillaume Faury publicly apologised in a deliberate shift of tone for an industry beset by lawsuits and conservative public relations.
(With inputs from Reuters)
