Airbus | Pakistan

Pakistan International Airlines remained unaffected even as global airlines scrambled on Saturday to fix a software glitch on their Airbus A320 jets after a recall by the European planemaker temporarily grounded aircraft in Asia and Europe and threatened travel in the United States during the busiest weekend of the year. The recall of 6,000 planes, covering more than half of Airbus’ global A320-family fleet, is among the broadest in its 55-year history and is a blow for the planemaker weeks after the A320 overtook the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered model. “PIA has confirmed that its entire A320 fleet is not affected by this Airbus alert. PIA’s Engineering and Maintenance department is closely monitoring their fleet’s airworthiness, ensuring safe operations,” said a statement by the airlines spokesperson issued today. Meanwhile, airlines worked through the night to make fixes after Airbus issued the emergency recall to 350 operators around the world, and global regulators directed carriers to remedy the soft...

PARIS: Europe’s Airbus said on Friday it was ordering an immediate software change on a “significant number” of its best-selling A320 family of jets in a move that industry sources said would bring disruption to half the global fleet, or thousands of jets. The move must be carried out before the next routine flight, according to a separate bulletin to airlines, threatening cancellations or delays during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in the United States and beyond. Airbus said in a statement a recent incident involving an A320-family aircraft had revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls. “Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,” it said. Industry sources said the incident that triggered the unexpected repair action involved a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, on Oct 30, in which several passengers were hurt following a sharp loss of altitude...