Airbus issues major A320 recall, threatening global flight disruption
Baku, December 1, AZERTAC
Europe's Airbus said on Friday it was ordering immediate repairs to 6,000 of its widely used A320 family of jets in a sweeping recall affecting more than half the global fleet, threatening upheaval during the busiest travel weekend of the year in the United States and disruption worldwide, Reuters reported.
The setback appears to be among the largest recalls affecting Airbus in its 55-year history and comes weeks after the A320 overtook the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered model. At the time Airbus issued its bulletin to the plane's more than 350 operators, some 3,000 A320-family jets were in the air.
The fix mainly involves reverting to earlier software and is relatively simple, but must be carried out before the planes can fly again, other than repositioning to repair centres, according to the bulletin to airlines seen by Reuters.
Airlines from the United States to South America, Europe, India and New Zealand warned the repairs could potentially cause flight delays or cancellations.
The world's largest A320 operator, American, 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, India's IndiGo and UK-based easyJet.
Colombian carrier Avianca said the recall affected more than 70% of its fleet, prompting it to close ticket sales for travel dates through December 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 U.S. airlines: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines 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.
Other news in this section
