Airbus Software Upgrade Averts Widespread Travel Chaos

Fears of days of travel chaos across Europe and the world eased on Saturday after Airbus quickly implemented a software upgrade needed on roughly 6,000 of its A320 planes.

The declaration late Friday that the planes couldn’t fly until the update was installed followed an incident in the United States and raised concerns about widespread groundings.

However, several major European airlines reported minimal or no cancellations. It appears the situation was more challenging in Latin America and Asia.

Airbus instructed airlines Friday to take “immediate precautionary action” after analyzing a technical issue on a JetBlue flight in October.

According to Airbus, “intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to flight controls,” potentially affecting a large number of A320 Family aircraft.

A source close to the issue told AFP that the software replacement would take “a few hours” for most planes, but could take “weeks” for about 1,000 aircraft.

‘Far Fewer’ Than Feared

French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot told BFMTV that Airbus had corrected the defect on over 5,000 aircraft Friday and Saturday morning.

He suggested the number of aircraft needing extended maintenance could be lower than initially expected. Airlines are working to complete the updates as quickly as possible to minimize disruption.