New Delhi:
Flight operations of IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express are expected to face disruptions as they work to fix a possible technical issue in their Airbus A320 family aircraft, as reported by the source. The issue is linked to flight control systems, and around 200–250 planes in India may be affected.
On Friday, Airbus said that strong solar radiation could corrupt important data used by the aircraft’s flight control computers. To fix this, software updates and in some cases hardware adjustments are required. Since these aircraft must be grounded while the work is done, flight delays and cancellations are highly expected.
India has around 560 A320 family aircraft in total, including A319s, A320s and A321s. Of these, sources say up to 250 need repairs or software changes. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an emergency directive asking airlines to replace or modify a key flight control computer called the Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC) before the affected aircraft can fly again.
Air service will be affected
IndiGo, which operates the largest A320 fleet in the country, said it is aware of Airbus’ notification and is working with the manufacturer to carry out the inspections. The airline said it would try to minimise disruptions, but even after that they don’t want to give assurance as it is not in their hands.
Air India Express also confirmed that it has started taking precautionary steps. It said most of its planes are not affected, but around 31 aircraft will need inspection, which could lead to delays or cancellations.
Air India is also preparing for software and hardware updates on some of its A320 family aircraft. The airline has said that longer turnaround times may lead to delays and apologised to passengers for the inconvenience.