Global airlines rushed to fix a software flaw in their Airbus A320 jets on Saturday after an analysis found that computer code may have contributed to a sudden drop in altitude on a JetBlue plane last month.
The measure temporarily grounded aircraft in Asia and Europe and threatened travel in the United States during the busiest weekend of the year, due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) joined the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in requiring airlines to address the issue with a new software update. More than 500 US-registered aircraft will be impacted.
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The EU safety agency said the fix could cause “short-term disruption” to flight schedules. In Japan, All Nippon Airways, which operates more than 30 planes, canceled 65 domestic flights for Saturday. Additional cancellations on Sunday are possible, the company said.
The software change comes as passengers in the US were starting to return home after the holidays. American Airlines has around 480 A320 family planes, of which 209 are affected. “The fix is expected to take approximately two hours for many aircraft,” the airline said. American expected some delays but said it was focused on limiting cancellations.
In a post on the social network X, Air India said its engineers were working on the fix, and have completed the reset on more than 40% of aircraft that need it. “There were no cancellations,” the company said.
Delta said it expected the issue to affect fewer than 50 of its A321neo aircraft. United said six planes in its fleet were affected and that it expected minor disruptions to some flights. Hawaiian Airlines said it was not affected.
