Air travel across India and many other countries is set to face major disruption this weekend, as the Airbus A320 family of aircraft, the world’s most widely used single-aisle planes, will be grounded for a mandatory software upgrade. In India alone, over 350 operational A320 family planes of IndiGo and the Air India Group will be taken out of service for the update.
The work is expected to take around two to three days, after which flights are likely to return to normal by Monday or Tuesday (1st or 2nd December). Globally, nearly 6,000 aircraft may be affected by this temporary grounding.
It comes after an incident on 30th October, 2025, when American carrier JetBlue’s A320 aircraft flying from Cancun to Newark suddenly tilted downward without the pilot commanding it. The National Transportation Safety Board later said that it likely occurred during a switch change in the aircraft’s ELAC, (Elevator & Aileron Computer), which is a flight control computer. That plane landed safely in Tampa, but some passengers had to be hospitalised, raising serious questions about safety.
To prevent such incidents in the future, Airbus has recommended a software update. On the newer A320 models, this process takes around 30 minutes per aircraft and can be done through a digital “loading facility.” However, older A320S will also require some hardware changes, which means they will take longer to fix.
EASA issues emergency order
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an emergency airworthiness directive for all aircraft in the A320 family. It warned that this issue might disrupt flight schedules and inconvenience passengers, but stressed that safety must remain foremost.
In India, most of IndiGo‘s A320 planes are the newer variety, while only very few are the older versions. Out of its fleet of over 350 A320 family aircraft, the required upgrade for almost 250 planes is expected to be completed by early next week. Air India also operates 120–125 A320 family planes, and more than 100 of them will be affected by this safety update, as per reports.
Airlines respond to the disruption
Air India said on X early Saturday morning (29th November): “We are aware of a directive from Airbus related to its A320 family aircraft currently in service across airline operators. This will result in a software/hardware realignment on a part of our fleet, leading to longer turnaround times and delays to our scheduled operations. Air India regrets any inconvenience this may cause to passengers till the reset is carried out across the fleet.”
We are aware of a directive from Airbus related to its A320 family aircraft currently in-service across airline operators. This will result in a software/hardware realignment on a part of our fleet, leading to longer turnaround time and delays to our…
— Air India (@airindia) November 28, 2025
In a statement, Airbus SE said that more than half its active A320 jetliner family fleet would need a software update after the recent incident involving a JetBlue Airways aircraft, suggesting that “intensifying solar radiation” could lead to corruption of data used to keep flight controls working.
Therefore, they requested all operators to take immediate precautionary actions through an “alert operator transmission” (AOT), which will soon be reflected in EASA’s emergency directive.
Safety comes first, says Airbus
Airbus admitted that these steps would lead to operational disruptions, but emphasised that passenger safety was more important than mere inconvenience. The company said it was cooperating closely with global airlines and aviation authorities to ensure that all aircraft receive the necessary software and hardware updates as quickly as possible.
EASA also explained in its emergency directive that a recent A320 flight saw a limited but uncommanded pitch-down movement while the autopilot was still on. The incident did not develop into a major problem, but according to a technical assessment, a malfunction in the ELAC computer was a likely cause. If left uncorrected, this problem could potentially lead to more serious uncommanded movements, which might exceed the aircraft’s structural safety limits.
It said that more than 6,500 jets could be affected by the required update. This upgrade also needs to take place before an aircraft’s next regular flight, it said in a notice.
Notably, the A320 is the rival to Boeing Co. 737 aircraft, and both jetliner families are key aircraft in the civil aviation industry.
