Airbus (EU:AIR) said Monday that airline operations are gradually returning to normal as carriers complete a wave of unexpected software updates faster than initially projected, following the discovery of a solar-radiation vulnerability that temporarily grounded 6,000 aircraft.
Airlines across Asia, Europe, and the U.S. confirmed they had applied the mandatory update issued after investigators determined that a recent JetBlue A320 incident revealed sensitivity to solar flares. Regulators instructed operators to install the fix before putting their aircraft back into service.
According to Airbus, most of the roughly 6,000 A320-family aircraft covered by the alert have now been updated, leaving fewer than 100 still awaiting the patch. A small subset of jets will need a more time-consuming process, prompting Colombia’s Avianca to briefly halt new bookings through December 8.
Airbus shares fell 2.3% in early European trading on Monday.
The issue surfaced when Airbus identified that intense solar radiation could disrupt a critical flight-control computer. The recall affected nearly 6,000 jets across the A320 family, including A318, A319, A320, and A321 models.
Most aircraft were cleared to resume flying within hours after receiving the update, which typically required only a short maintenance window.
Airbus launched its investigation following an October incident in which an A320 flying between the U.S. and Mexico experienced a sudden loss of altitude. Engineers later traced the event to a particular flight-control software standard that, in rare cases, could be corrupted by strong solar activity.
The manufacturer noted that around 5,100 aircraft can be addressed with a software roll-back, while approximately 900 older jets will need full hardware replacements. Those aircraft will have to be ferried to maintenance centres and will stay out of passenger service until upgrades are complete.
Airbus reiterated that the problem will not impact its production timeline — a sign, RBC Capital Markets analyst Ken Herbert wrote, that the company “will not use this issue as a reason for not hitting its 2025 delivery guidance.”
Herbert added that although hardware changes carry higher costs, the financial impact is “likely less material than initially feared by investors.”
Goldman Sachs analysts said attention is now shifting to the availability of replacement parts and any knock-on effects heading into next year. While the software update itself is inexpensive, the bank cautioned that aircraft downtime and tight spare-parts supply could introduce a “risk of aircraft delivery disruption” in 2026.
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