Attention flyers! Air India on Saturday issued an advisory for passengers and warned of delays and longer turnaround in scheduled operations as Airbus ordered an immediate software change on a number of its A320 fleet.
The airline stated that it is aware of a directive from Airbus related to its A320 family aircraft currently in-service across airline operators.
“This will result in a software/hardware realignment on a part of our fleet, leading to longer turnaround time and delays to our scheduled operations,” said the airline in a post on X.
Air India stated that it regrets any inconvenience that may cause to passengers till the reset is carried out across the fleet.
“We request customers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.”
The airline said that passengers can connect with contact centre at 011-69329333, 011-69329999 for any further assistance.
In a statement, Airbus said that a recent incident involving an A320-family aircraft had revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.
“Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,” the company said.
The company stated that it has worked proactively with the aviation authorities to request immediate precautionary action from operators via an Alert Operators Transmission (AOT) in order to implement the available software and/or hardware protection, and ensure the fleet is safe to fly.
Further it Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and will work closely with operators, while keeping safety as our number one and overriding priority,” the company stated.
Reuters reported that an Airbus bulletin to airlines showed that the airlines affected by a sweeping recall of Airbus A320 jets to fix a software glitch must carry out the work before the next flight, excluding any re-positioning flight to a repair base,
The document, seen by Reuters, traced the issue to a computer known as ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer), which sends commands to elevators that control the plane’s pitch or nose angle.