After Airbus recalled some 6,000 of its popular A320 jets on Friday, 28 November 2025, most of the affected aircraft have now been serviced and repaired. Some older airplanes, however, will be grounded for an undefined period of time, possibly impacting flight schedules around the globe.
French aerospace giant Airbus and its A320 recently overtook the Boeing 737 as the world’s most-delivered aircraft. However, mere weeks later, the company recalled 6,000 of the A320 planes due to a possible error with their onboard computers. At the time of the recall, some 3,000 A320 jets were in the air.
The glitch in the onboard computer system was discovered after a JetBlue Airways plane flying between the US and Mexico on 30 October 2025 experienced a sharp loss in altitude, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Tampa (Florida) and leaving some 15 passengers wounded. A Federal Aviation Administration investigation followed, and Airbus looked into the cause of the incident, which was finally identified as a computing software glitch caused by solar radiation at high altitude, potentially corrupting elevation data.
FAA Statement
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) November 29, 2025
The Federal Aviation Administration issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) for certain Airbus A319 and A320/321 airplanes.
The EAD requires replacing or modifying the software that controls the airplanes’ elevator ailerons. The EAD is effective…
Many airlines impacted
According to an Airbus spokesperson, some 6,000 A320 planes would need to undergo some maintenance work following the discovery. Luckily, for most of them, a quick two-hour software update (requiring installation of a previous software version) sufficed to solve the issue.
Statement from @Airbus CEO @GuillaumeFaury on the #A320 precautionary measures:https://t.co/U4BANyBzGf pic.twitter.com/5X9uC3Ix2d
— Airbus Newsroom (@AirbusPRESS) November 29, 2025
Still, the news caused quite a bit of panic, especially since the US was experiencing a particularly busy travel weekend due to Thanksgiving. US-based carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, and United Airlines belong to the global airlines flying the most Airbus A320S – as do China Eastern Airlines, EasyJet, and Lufthansa, amongst others.
Qatar Airways has successfully implemented the required fix on the affected Airbus A320 fleet with only minor impact to the planned schedule.
— Qatar Airways (@qatarairways) November 30, 2025
The safety and security of our passengers and crew is always our highest priority.
Despite some flight cancellations and delays caused by the update, by Saturday, 29 November 2025, over 5,000 planes had undergone the repair without issues, according to French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot. Some 100 still need to undergo maintenance work, and another 900 will need entirely new onboard computers.
“As of 12 p.m. CT, no aircraft were left to be updated of the 209 impacted. American expects no further operational impact related to the Emergency Airworthiness Directive and looks forward to the remaining days of the Thanksgiving holiday travel period, especially Sunday, our most-traveled day”, American Airlines said in a statement on Saturday, 29 November 2025, confirming the French Transport Minister’s announcement.
À la suite d’un incident sur un vol aux États-Unis, Airbus a annoncé hier que des avions de la famille A320 nécessitaient une mise à jour.
— Philippe Tabarot (@PhilippeTabarot) November 29, 2025
La situation est ce matin stabilisée et les perturbations de vol en France sont réduites.
Merci aux équipes des constructeurs, des… pic.twitter.com/hSRIlPuIoH
At the time of writing, it is unclear how long it will take to make these changes, as it depends on the availability of both skilled engineers and spare parts. Until then, the 900 jets will need to stay grounded and could thus impact global air traffic.
