On November 28, Airbus issued an urgent Airworthiness Directive concerning a mandatory software update for its A320 aircraft, impacting SAA and LIFT’s fleets.
An analysis by Airbus revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls in a number of in-service A320 aircraft.
The directive mandated the completion of the software installation by 23h59 UTC on Saturday, November 29.
On December 1, Airbus confirmed that, out of around 6 000 aircraft potentially affected, the vast majority had now received the necessary modifications.
Airlines in SA
SAA said the directive mandated a four-hour installation procedure on two of its 14 A320s. However, the airline confirmed that it did not anticipate any flight disruptions.
On the morning of November 29, SAA Technical mobilised resources to initiate the required software installation.
“A robust plan is in place to ensure the swift completion of this critical maintenance, with every effort to avoid disruptions to our flight schedule. Should any aircraft fail to meet compliance by the deadline, it will be immediately grounded,” said SAA Group CEO, John Lamola.
A LIFT spokesperson told Travel News that all its A320 aircraft had gone through checks in line with the directive. “All the A320 aircraft are compliant and continue to operate,” said the LIFT spokesperson.
International airlines
According to Reuters, several international airlines were briefly affected by the directive and mandated software updates.
In Europe, Air France was forced to cancel 35 flights, the Lufthansa Group anticipated a small number of disruptions among its airlines, Turkish Airlines was required to update eight aircraft and British Airways had to update three.
In the Americas, both Delta and United had to update some of their aircraft, while Latam also confirmed that a limited number of its aircraft needed software updates.
