“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and will work closely with operators, while keeping safety as our number one and overriding priority.” With that line, Airbus told airlines in late November 2025 that a large share of the A320 family had to be fixed before it could fly again.
The company put the number at about 6,000 aircraft, more than half of the in-service A320 fleet. Roughly 11,300 A320-family jets are in operation worldwide.
What set it off
On October 30, a JetBlue Airways A320 flying from Cancún to Newark suffered a sudden, uncommanded drop in altitude at cruise. The pilots made an emergency landing in Tampa, and several passengers were injured. Safe Fly Aviation put the number treated for minor injuries at 15.
Airbus then traced the cause to a vulnerability in the Elevator and Aileron Computer (ELAC), which translates pilot inputs into movement of the elevators and ailerons that control pitch. The company concluded that intense solar radiation can corrupt data processed by the unit, and that corrupted data can produce unintended control inputs such as a pitch-down.
On November 28, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive. Operators had to fit “serviceable” ELAC units or revert to an earlier, stable software version before any further flights. Airbus called its action “precautionary” and told carriers that “a significant number of A320-family aircraft currently in-service” might be affected.
A busy weekend to be grounded
For most aircraft, the fix was a software rollback taking roughly two to three hours and could be done during a ground turnaround. A few needed hardware changes. The campaign coincided with the Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, one of the heaviest travel periods of the year.
The effects reached across continents. Profit, citing airline reports, said American Airlines had 209 of 480 A320s needing the fix. In India, 338 Airbus aircraft were affected: IndiGo had completed resets on 160 of 200 planes and Air India on 42 of 113. Japan’s ANA Holdings cancelled 95 flights, affecting 13,500 passengers. Avianca in Colombia had over 70 percent of its fleet affected.
Pakistan International Airlines said its A320 fleet was not affected. Flight tracker data showed moderate delays at most airports, and analysts described the disruption as limited, though short-term operational problems persisted.
The recall was among the largest in Airbus’s 55-year history. It came weeks after the A320 overtook the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered jetliner model.
Sources
- Why Has Airbus Grounded Half Of Its Global A320 Fleet? JetBlue Solar Radiation Glitch Explained
- PIA safe as Airbus grounds 6,000 A320 jets for software fix – Profit by Pakistan Today
- Airbus A320 Recall: Solar Radiation Software Flaw Grounds Thousands of Jets, Sparking Global Holiday Travel Chaos | SAFE FLY AVIATION
