Indian airlines, including IndiGo, Air India, and Air India Express, are preparing for potential flight disruptions due to a significant safety advisory from Airbus concerning its A320 family aircraft. The European aircraft manufacturer has issued a global alert, highlighting that strong solar radiation could potentially impact critical flight-control computers on these planes. This issue necessitates software or minor hardware modifications for a substantial portion of India’s A320 fleet, estimated to be around 560 aircraft. Approximately half of these planes may require inspections and fixes, a process that could lead to temporary grounding. Given that A320 jets are the backbone of domestic air travel in India, these grounding periods are expected to cause widespread flight delays and possible cancellations across major carriers. IndiGo has acknowledged the alert and is actively working on the updates, warning passengers of potential “slight schedule changes.” Air India Express is implementing precautionary measures, anticipating delays, while Air India confirmed that its affected A320s will undergo necessary realignments, leading to slower turnaround times and increased delays. Airbus emphasized that safety is paramount and apologized for any inconvenience, committing to full support for airlines in rolling out the required updates. The advisory stems from an incident where an A320 experienced an uncommanded downward pitch, attributed to a glitch in the Elevator and Aileron Computer (ELAC). The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has mandated immediate installation of updated ELAC units to prevent potential structural stress on aircraft.
