Indian carriers are racing to complete mandated inspections on parts of their Airbus A320 fleets after the European plane-maker warned of a solar-radiation-linked software vulnerability affecting nearly 6,000 aircraft worldwide. While global travel hubs reported delays, India’s largest airlines — IndiGo and Air India — said operations remain largely stable, with no cancellations so far.
Airbus said that elevated solar radiation levels could corrupt data used by critical flight-control systems on specific A320-family jets. The company, working with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), has asked operators to roll back to a previous software version and install compliant hardware where required. About 200–250 aircraft in India may need the update.
IndiGo said all inspections and updates are being completed in line with EASA and Airbus directives. Of the 200 aircraft identified for checks, work had been completed on 160 by noon on Saturday.
“No flights have been cancelled due to these checks, though a few may see minimal delays,” the airline said.
Air India said over 40 percent of its affected A320-family aircraft have already been realigned. The airline expects slightly longer turnaround times but “no major impact on schedule integrity”. Air India Express added that most of its fleet is unaffected, though global guidance could still cause delays.
Akasa Air and SpiceJet remain unaffected as they do not operate Airbus aircraft.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has issued its own directive, covering 338 Airbus aircraft across Indian operators. About 56 percent of the jets had received the required upgrade by Saturday afternoon.
The regulator has barred the listed aircraft models — spanning A319, A320 and A321 variants — from flying until the software or hardware fixes and mandatory inspections are completed. Airlines have been told to finish the process “as soon as possible” to avoid service disruption.
EASA has described the move as precautionary. The agency says Airbus has asked operators to instal serviceable Elevator Aileron Computers (ELAC), which convert pilot side-stick inputs to elevator movements.
For Indian carriers, the compliance deadline is 5.30 am on November 30. Jets that are not upgraded by then must remain grounded. With IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express reporting near-completion, delays are expected to ease by the cut-off time.
