IndiGo stressed that operations remain largely unaffected.

Airbus software update: India’s Airbus A320 family aircraft have resumed operations after airlines carried out most of the required software resets prompted by a safety notice from Airbus and EASA.

Airlines, including IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express, on Saturday started carrying out software upgrades of A320 family planes to address a potential flight control issue with minimal disruption to flight schedules. The software upgrade is being done after the DGCA ordered an immediate halt to flights operated by the Airbus A320 family until airlines complete mandatory safety modifications.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), out of 338 A320 family aircraft operated by Indian airlines that require the software upgrade, 323 aircraft have been upgraded with the latest software updates.

DGCA stated that IndiGo has fully completed the software upgrade across its 200 aircraft, ensuring full compliance with the directive. Air India has completed the update of 100 out of 113 of its operating A320 family fleet. Air India Express has also completed the software upgrade in 23 of its 25 A320 aircraft.

“This programme involved a carefully coordinated sequence of work, with our engineering and operations teams ensuring each aircraft was updated with mandated system upgrade while maintaining stable operations across the network. Their effort helped us carry out a fleet-wide upgrade with minimal impact on customers’ journeys and zero cancellations,” IndiGo said in a statement.

“We expect to cover the entire fleet within the timeline prescribed by EASA, with safety remaining our top priority. Rising to the occasion, our engineering and ground colleagues worked round the clock to ensure there were no cancellations and that the impact on our schedule integrity across the network was minimal,” Air India said in a statement.

The software upgrades are being undertaken at the bases of the airlines in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

In a notification, DGCA has instructed operators to update their compliance records accordingly. It said, no aircraft should continue in service without meeting the required safety standards.

Why The Aircrafts Were Grounded?

The update follows a global disruption caused by a malfunction in the Airbus A320 family’s Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC) system, which could lead to flight control data corruption due to intense solar radiation.

The action followed a recent mid-air incident involving an A320 in which a flight-control computer behaved unexpectedly, prompting Airbus to order immediate software and hardware updates across the global fleet. The company said that the fix is precautionary but mandatory.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which reported the event, noted that the autopilot remained engaged and the aircraft lost only a small amount of altitude before stabilising. The flight continued normally, but the event prompted a deeper investigation into the systems involved.

The company said that during periods of intense solar activity, solar radiation may corrupt the data going into this ELAC unit, affecting how it commands the aircraft’s tail surfaces. If the data becomes corrupted, the ELAC may briefly send an incorrect signal to the elevators, the movable surfaces on the tail that control pitch.

EASA said Airbus had asked operators to install a “serviceable” Elevator Aileron Computer in the affected aircraft. ELAC is the system that interprets pilot inputs on the side-stick and translates them into movement of the aircraft’s elevators and ailerons, which control pitch and roll.

Globally, nearly 6,000 A320 family jets are affected by the software directive. Most will require a software update, while a smaller subset may need hardware realignment. More than 8,100 A320 family aircraft, including A319s, A320ceos and neos, and A321ceos and neos, are in service worldwide, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

(With inputs from agencies)