Airbus has ordered immediate repairs affecting approximately 6,000 A320-family aircraft—more than half the global fleet of 11,300 jets—in one of the largest recalls in the manufacturer's 55-year history, following the discovery that intense solar radiation can corrupt critical flight control data in the aircraft's ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer) system.
The unprecedented recall was triggered by a JetBlue flight incident on October 30 traveling from Cancun to Newark, where the aircraft experienced an uncommanded altitude drop that injured several passengers and necessitated an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, prompting a Federal Aviation Administration investigation into the flight control malfunction.
According to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency's emergency airworthiness directive issued Friday, airlines must complete mandatory software updates—primarily reverting to previous versions—before aircraft can resume normal operations, with American Airlines reporting that 209 of its 480 A320 jets require fixes expected to take approximately two hours each, while Colombian carrier Avianca suspended ticket sales through December 8 as over 70 percent of its fleet was affected.
The recall timing threatens significant global disruption during the busiest U.S. travel weekend of the year, with Air France-KLM canceling 38 flights representing 5 percent of daily operations, and industry experts warning that approximately one-third of affected aircraft may require hardware replacements taking weeks to complete, compounding existing maintenance backlogs from separate engine repair delays.
Aviation analyst Mike Stengel of AeroDynamic Advisory noted the problematic timing for such widespread groundings, while Transport Canada confirmed it is monitoring the situation and assessing impacts on Canadian air operations, with this recall occurring just weeks after the A320 surpassed Boeing's 737 as the world's most-delivered aircraft model.
