Most of the 6,000 Airbus aeroplanes affected by an emergency recall had undergone a software fix by Saturday morning, according to France's Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot. Flights are resuming after the European aviation giant temporarily grounded aircraft around the world on Friday night, though disruption looks set to continue throughout the weekend.
Airbus issued an unusually broad recall of A320, A319 and A321 models after identifying a problem that caused one of its best-selling planes to make a sudden nosedive at the end of October.
It concluded that "intense solar radiation" could result in onboard software involved in flight controls malfunctioning, an issue it said could be resolved by replacing the software.
"Software updates were carried out on virtually all aircraft last night," Tabarot told French news channel BFMTV on Saturday, indicating that "more than 5,000" of the 6,000 planes concerned had already been fixed.
A limited number will require more extensive repairs. Airbus had reported that was the case for fewer than 100 planes, Tabarot said.
Meanwhile French Economy Minister Roland Lescure told BFMTV: "We hope to return to normal very soon."
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Thousands of passengers affected
Air France, which cancelled 35 flights from French airports on Friday night, said that it expected delays on Saturday and a return to normal on Sunday for most passengers.
Flights to Caribbean destinations are expected to remain disrupted for longer, since its planes on these routes require more complex maintenance.
Some 350 airlines around the world worked through the night to comply with the recall, which coincided with one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in the United States as the country celebrates Thanksgiving.
American Airlines, the world's biggest A320 operator, said 209 of its aircraft needed fixes, most of which it expected to complete by Saturday.
Japan's biggest airline, ANA, cancelled 95 flights on Saturday, affecting more than 13,000 travellers. India's aviation regulator said 338 Airbus aircraft in the country were affected, but the software reset would be completed by Sunday.
"We consider that nothing is more important than safety," said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury in a message posted to LinkedIn on Saturday, in which he apologised for the disruption.
"Our teams are working around the clock to support our operators and ensure these updates are deployed as swiftly as possible to get planes back in the sky and resume normal operations, with the safety assurance you expect from Airbus."
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Nosedive
The recall comes the month after the A320 overtook Boeing's 737 as the world's most-sold aeroplane. Around 11,300 A320-family aircraft are in operation globally.
It follows a computer malfunction on an A320 aircraft operated by low-cost US carrier JetBlue on 30 October.
The plane plummeted suddenly as it travelled between Cancun in Mexico and Newark in the US. Pilots made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, and at least 15 passengers were reported injured.
(with newswires)
