On Friday, Airbus ordered the grounding of thousands of A320-family aircraft after investigators linked a JetBlue midair incident last month to a software glitch triggered by solar radiation. With approximately 6,000 aircraft affected, this represents around half of the global Airbus A320 fleet.

While the fix for the software vulnerability was relatively quick for most aircraft, some airlines have been unable to avoid significant disruption to their schedules. Despite many carriers performing the necessary software updates without a hitch, others have canceled scores of flights or warned their passengers of impending cancellations and delays.

Airlines Warn Of Cancellations And Delays

With over 200 aircraft in its fleet affected, American Airlines has warned of « operational delays, » although it said most aircraft in its fleet would be completed on Saturday. American initially stated that around 340 aircraft would be affected, but later revised this figure to 209 aircraft. Data from FlightAware shows the airline has canceled over 120 flights today, on top of another 530 delayed flights and rising.

Several other airlines worldwide have reported an impact on their schedules. For example, Air France canceled several flights out of Paris on Saturday morning, while All Nippon Airways (ANA) scrapped over 60 domestic flights. Some of the worst travel chaos was seen in Australia after low-cost carrier Jetstar canceled around 90 flights, while Colombian airline Avianca said that 70% of its fleet has been affected, closing ticket sales until December 8.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury confirmed that the majority of A320s around the world are now updated, but recognized the disruption could persist into the weekend. Faury said,

« Our teams are working around the clock to support our operators and ensure these updates are deployed as swiftly as possible to get planes back in the sky and resume normal operations, with the safety assurance you expect from Airbus. »

Most Escape With Minimal Disruption

Several airlines have reassured their passengers of operational normality, having performed the necessary software updates overnight. UK airlines British Airways and easyJet both reported minimal impact on their operations, while Wizz Air also completed the updates overnight. This was confirmed by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), although London Gatwick Airport reported a small level of disruption.

Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo — which is one of the world’s largest A320neo operators — said it did not need to cancel any flights, although it warned of slight delays in places, while Air India said it had updated over 90% of its affected fleet. Delta Air Lines said only a handful of its aircraft were affected, saying it had completed the updates with no impact on operations.

The timing of Airbus’ recall was quite fortuitous for Asian and European airlines, as it occurred in the evening when their short and medium-haul schedules were winding down. However, US airlines weren’t quite as lucky, and are already in the midst of the busy Thanksgiving travel rush, projected to be the busiest on record.

Airlines Work Through The Night

The sudden nature of the safety directive took the industry by surprise, but airlines rapidly mobilized their teams to get their aircraft fixed as soon as possible. Despite the initial panic, most airlines were able to avoid significant disruption, which could have been far worse given how popular the A320 is.

There are approximately 11,300 Airbus A320-family aircraft in service today, with the problem impacting over 6,000 jets. While the majority of planes only require a quick software reversion, several hundred will require more extensive hardware fixes, potentially grounding them for an extended period of time.

The emergency directive to fix the software glitch happened after investigators linked a sudden loss of altitude on a JetBlue flight to interference caused by « intense » solar radiation. The JetBlue flight from Cancun to Newark on October 30 made a sudden, uncontrolled descent after a malfunction with its elevator aileron computer.