{"id":165260,"date":"2025-11-29T02:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/165260\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T02:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:01:07","slug":"number-of-aer-lingus-planes-among-thousands-of-airbus-jets-that-require-urgent-software-fix-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/165260\/","title":{"rendered":"Number of Aer Lingus planes among thousands of Airbus jets that require urgent software fix \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/aer-lingus\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/aer-lingus\/\">Aer Lingus<\/a> has said a limited number of its aircraft are affected by an urgent direction for software updates, but it does not expect \u201csignificant\u201d flight disruption. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/airbus\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/airbus\/\">Airbus<\/a> has cautioned that more than half of its active A320 jetliner family fleet will need a software fix after a recent incident involving a JetBlue Airways airliner revealed that \u201cintense solar radiation\u201d could corrupt data that helps maintain functioning flight controls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The company said a significant number of its A320 fleet, encompassing more than 6,500 jets in total, may be impacted by the required fix, according to a statement sent by the European plane maker on Friday. A separate directive by regulators said the upgrade must happen before an aircraft\u2019s next regular flight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a statement on Friday, Aer Lingus said: \u201cIn Aer Lingus\u2019 case a limited number of aircraft are impacted, and the airline is taking immediate steps to complete the required software installation. As a result, Aer Lingus expects that there will be no significant operational disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The British Civil Aviation Authority said it expects some disruptions to airlines and flights operating in the country due to the issue. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe have been made aware of an issue that may affect some of the A320 family of aircraft and the precautionary action that EASA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/european-union-aviation-safety-agency\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/european-union-aviation-safety-agency\/\">European Union Aviation Safety Agency<\/a>) has taken,\u201d Giancarlo Buono, director of aviation safety at the UK Civil Aviation Authority said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a statement, Airbus said it \u201cacknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The advisory follows an unnerving incident on October 30th involving a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/jetblue-airways\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/jetblue-airways\/\">JetBlue<\/a> aircraft flying from Canc\u00fan to Newark, New Jersey, that suffered a computer glitch, resulting in a sudden, unexpected downward pitch without pilot input. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Nobody was injured, and the jet diverted to Tampa, Florida, but a later investigation revealed that one of the plane\u2019s elevator-aileron computers \u2013 known as ELAC 2 \u2013 had malfunctioned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/transport\/2025\/11\/28\/changes-announced-to-contentious-busconnects-route-but-further-protests-loom\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Changes announced to contentious BusConnects route but further protests loomOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The finding risks becoming a significant headache for Airbus, given the A320 family is the company\u2019s by far most widely flown aircraft, with more than 11,000 aircraft in operation. Some airlines have already responded and begun performing the upgrades. American Airlines Group said about 340 jets are affected, and that the vast majority will receive the update today and tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThough we expect some delays as we accomplish these updates, we are intently focused on limiting cancellations \u2013 especially with customers returning home from holiday travel,\u201d the carrier said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">According to people familiar with the situation, most of the jets can receive an uncomplicated update from the cockpit with minimal downtime. But about 1,000 older jets will need an actual hardware upgrade and will have to be grounded for the duration of the maintenance, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing non-public findings. \u2013 Bloomberg, Reuters <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aer Lingus has said a limited number of its aircraft are affected by an urgent direction for software&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[601,125,72,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-165260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-airbus","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}