‘No Flight Cancellations’: Air India Says A320 Safety Fix Not Disrupting Operations

Air India clarified that no flights have been cancelled due to the mandatory software and hardware realignment ordered for Airbus A320-family aircraft worldwide. The airline said operations remain largely stable despite the directive issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Airbus.

“There isn’t any major impact on schedule integrity across our network. However, some of our flights may be slightly delayed or rescheduled. Our colleagues on ground are there to assist passengers,” the airline said in a statement.

Air India added that it has made significant progress on the required fix.

“We have already completed the reset on over 40% of our aircraft that are impacted by this, and are confident of covering the entire fleet within

the timeline prescribed by EASA,” it said.

What Triggered The Airbus Directive?

The Airbus alert followed an October 30 incident in which a JetBlue A320 flying from Cancun to Newark pitched downward unexpectedly without pilot input. The aircraft diverted to Tampa and several passengers were hospitalised. A preliminary investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board found that the sudden descent “likely occurred during an ELAC switch change,” referring to the Electronic Flight Control Computer that manages elevator and aileron functions.

Airbus later determined that intense solar radiation may corrupt flight-control data on some A320-family aircraft. EASA’s emergency airworthiness directive warned that, if uncorrected, the malfunction could lead to uncommanded elevator movement. Airbus said it worked with regulators to introduce immediate precautionary checks, noting that the issue must be addressed “to ensure the fleet is safe to fly.”

Indian Aviation Network Impacted

India operates one of the world’s largest A320 fleets, with IndiGo and the Air India group together flying more than 350 aircraft of this type. The updates are expected to take two to three days. Airlines anticipate that operations will normalise by Monday or Tuesday.

IndiGo, which has around 350 A320-family aircraft, said most of its fleet requires only the quicker software update and expects around 250 aircraft to undergo the reset this weekend.