American Airlines is temporarily grounding more than 300 of its Airbus A320 family aircraft that require updates to flight control software.
The Fort Worth carrier, which operates its central hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, said it began software updates to roughly 340 aircraft that were affected by the software issue, in an attempt to get ahead of directives from regulators in both the U.S. and Europe.
The airline said it expects the “vast majority” of the updates to affected aircraft to be completed “today and tomorrow.” American said that “for many aircraft,” the update process will take around two hours to complete.
“Though we expect some delays as we accomplish these updates, we are intently focused on limiting cancellations — especially with customers returning home from holiday travel,“ the airline said.
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”Still, our overriding priority will always be the safety of our operation. It’s all hands on deck across our airline to address this Airbus software issue and take care of any customers whose flights are affected.”
American’s mainline fleet includes about 480 of the A320 family aircraft, the company said. Members of the Airbus A320 family include several aircraft, including the A319, A320, A321, and A321XLR.
American recently became the first U.S. airline to take delivery of the XLR and plans to fly the aircraft internationally starting in March.
Airbus on Friday said that intense solar radiation “may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.”
“Airbus has consequently identified a significant number of A320 Family aircraft currently in-service which may be impacted,” it added.
Shortly after Airbus’s announcement, the European Aviation Safety Agency issued an Airworthiness Directive for several models of Airbus aircraft that require Elevator Aileron Computer replacement. The technology is a key component for flight operations on Airbus fly-by-wire aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment further, but referred The News to the EASA and Airbus.
The grounding comes on the heels of an October incident in which at least 15 passengers aboard a JetBlue flight bound for New Jersey were injured, after an A320 aircraft suddenly lost altitude and was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida, the Associated Press reported.
“Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,” the company said. “We apologize for the inconvenience caused and will work closely with operators, while keeping safety as our number one and overriding priority.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if American’s top competitors, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, which also operate Airbus aircraft, were affected by the issue.
Southwest Airlines, which is headquartered at Dallas Love Field, only operates Boeing 737 aircraft, and is not impacted by the grounding.