Software updates completed for over half of affected A320 family planes in India: DGCA data

New Delhi: As many as 338 A320 family aircraft operated by Indian airlines require the software upgrade to address a potential issue related to flight controls, and modifications have been carried out in more than half of the affected fleet, according to DGCA data.

Sources told PTI that there are no flight cancellations, but there are delays in the range of 60-90 minutes for some flights as the software updates are being carried out for the affected planes.

On Friday, Airbus said intense solar radiation might corrupt data critical to flight controls in a significant number of A320 family aircraft and that the software changes required to fix the issue would lead to operational disruptions.

The software upgrades have been completed for 189 A320 family planes out of the total 338 aircraft, as per the data available with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) till 10 am on November 29.

The software upgrades on all the affected planes are to be completed by 5:29 am on November 30.

DGCA on Saturday issued an Airworthiness Directive to airlines asking Indian operators to immediately carry out the requisite software upgrades.

This followed Airbus issuing an alert to operators globally and European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) coming out with an Emergency Airworthiness Directive regarding the potential issue.

IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express operate A320 family planes, which include A320 ceos and neos, A321 ceos and neos. The affected aircraft need software upgrades or hardware realignment.

A total of 200 IndiGo planes have been affected, and software upgrades have been completed for 143 of them, while in the case of Air India, 113 aircraft have been impacted and upgrades have been done for 42 of them, the DGCA data showed.

In the case of Air India Express, 25 planes have been impacted, and the software upgrades have been completed for 4 of the aircraft, as per the data till 10 am.

The software upgrades are being undertaken at the bases of the airlines in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

In a post on X at 10.13 am, Air India said that following EASA and Airbus directives for a mandatory software and hardware realignment on A320 family aircraft, our engineers have been working round-the-clock to complete the task at the earliest.

"We have already completed the reset on over 40 per cent of our aircraft that are impacted by this, and are confident of covering the entire fleet within the timeline prescribed by EASA," the airline said.

Air India also said there have been no cancellations due to this task, and there is no major impact on schedule integrity across its network.

"However, some of our flights may be slightly delayed or rescheduled," it added.

On Friday, EASA said Airbus asked airline operators to install a serviceable Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC) in the impacted aircraft.

Generally, ELAC is for flight controls.

Airbus, on Friday, said an analysis of a recent event involving an A320 family aircraft has revealed 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 had said in a release.

Airbus had said it acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers.