|
Budget air carriers easyJet PLC and Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Monday reported no flight cancellations after ‘precautionary’ software updates were needed on some of their Airbus fleet. Wizz Air, which operates a fleet of 250 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, said 83 planes needed an ‘immediate software amendment’. This was completed ‘successfully’. ‘Due to the coordinated response of the engineering and operations teams, this mandatory maintenance has been managed with zero flight cancellations,’ Wizz said. easyJet, with a fleet of some 320 Airbus A320 family aircraft, reported it ‘completed the required software updates’ on affected planes. ‘Our flying programme operated as normal throughout the weekend and is expected to continue to do so,’ easyJet added, saying its financial outlook is unchanged. Jet maker Airbus SE on Friday had warned a ‘significant number of A320 family aircraft’ in service may have been affected. ‘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,’ it said. ‘Airbus has worked proactively with the aviation authorities to request immediate precautionary action from operators via an alert operators transmission in order to implement the available software and/or hardware protection, and ensure the fleet is safe to fly. This AOT will be reflected in an emergency airworthiness directive from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.’ Air France KLM SA told AFP it would be able to ‘transport all of its customers’ on Saturday with the exception of flights on its Caribbean regional network. Air France had cancelled 35 flights on Friday. German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG added for its stable of carriers that ‘most of the software updates were completed overnight and on Saturday morning’, with no flight cancellations expected but isolated delays not excluded. American Airlines Group Inc said it had already begun updating software following Friday’s alert, and expected ‘the vast majority’ of approximately 340 affected aircraft to be serviced by Saturday. ‘Several delays’ will occur as a result, it added. After initially saying it had not been affected, its competitor United Airlines Holdings Inc said it had identified affected aircraft and said it expected minor disruptions on a few flights. easyJet shares were down 0.1% at 499.15 pence each in London on Monday morning. Wizz Air was down 0.2% at 1,167.00p. Airbus was down 2.5% at €199.36 in Paris. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
|
