American Airlines said the issue was largely resolved Saturday morning.
FORT WORTH, Texas — American Airlines says it expedited software updates across its Airbus A320 family fleet after Airbus disclosed a newly identified safety concern affecting hundreds of aircraft worldwide.
Airbus previously reported that an analysis of a recent event involving another operator’s A320 aircraft revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to flight-control functions. The manufacturer says a “significant number” of A320-family jets worldwide may be affected.
In response, Airbus issued an Alert Operators Transmission advising airlines to immediately install available software and hardware protections. The guidance is expected to be incorporated into an Emergency Airworthiness Directive from Europe’s aviation regulator, EASA. Airbus acknowledged the updates will cause operational disruptions and apologized for the inconvenience, stressing that safety remains its top priority.
The Fort Worth-based airline, which operates its central hub at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, says it received word of the issue early Friday and quickly began updating affected aircraft — even before official directives from the FAA and EASA were issued.
The fix takes about two hours per aircraft, and American expected the “vast majority” of updates to be finished Friday and Saturday.
By 9 a.m. Saturday, American Airlines said just one aircraft of the 209 impacted remained to be updated.
“American expects no further operational impact related to the Emergency Airworthiness Directive and looks forward to the remaining days of the Thanksgiving holiday travel period, especially Sunday, our most-traveled day,” the airline said in a statement.
Airbus has advised airlines worldwide to implement the same software update. For details on the technical issue itself, American Airlines told WFAA that it is directing questions to Airbus.