By Chris Zappone and Alexander Darling
Thousands of Australian travellers’ flight plans have been thrown into chaos after aerospace giant Airbus flagged a problem affecting 6000 planes.
Jetstar has cancelled or delayed 90 flights while rolling out urgent software updates to 34 of its planes.
Overnight, Airbus ordered airlines to undertake software modifications on its A320 after it discovered the risk of errors in its flight control being triggered by “intense” solar radiation.
The problem first came to light when an October 30 JetBlue flight flying from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey “experienced a drop in altitude”, forcing it to make an unscheduled stop in Tampa, Florida.
Airbus said that 85 per cent of the affected aircraft require data uploading “that can be completed in a matter of hours”. For the remaining 15 per cent, “a hardware change is required”. Airbus “is working to accelerate delivery of the hardware to affected airlines”, a spokesman said.
Many Jetstar flights from Sydney to Victoria’s Tullamarine and Avalon airports, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart were cancelled on Saturday morning. Crowds at the Jetstar check-in area at Melbourne airport had reduced somewhat by early Saturday afternoon.
Jetstar said that as of 3.30pm (AEDT) on Saturday, 20 of the 34 affected aircraft were ready to return to service. “We’re expecting the remaining to be ready overnight, allowing flights to resume as planned on Sunday, November 30,” a spokesperson said.
There may be some flow-on delays or cancellations on Sunday “as the network fully recovers”.
Perth Airport said the recall would also affect Western Australia, and urged passengers to check with their airlines as the situation developed.
The cancellations have caused disruptions for thousands of year 12 leavers intending to travel to the Gold Coast and Byron Bay for schoolies week.
Passengers queueing at Melbourne Airport on Saturday after the Airbus emergency alert.Credit: Jason South
Eighteen-year-old Tom Feeney, from Malvern in Melbourne, and five friends booked their accommodation for this week’s schoolies festivities at Byron Bay two years ago, and the flights to Ballina – the closest airport – last January.
After arriving in Sydney, they discovered the flight to Ballina was cancelled. On Saturday morning, they were waiting at Sydney Airport for a flight to Brisbane, the only flight they could get.
Oli Gill, Alex Marchesani, Henry Willee, Tom Feeney and Oscar Sorell wait at Sydney Airport on Saturday for a flight to Brisbane. Credit: Julie Power
A friend’s mother has organised an UberXL from Brisbane to Byron. “We got lucky,” Feeney said. “Quite a lot of people were trying to get a seat, but there are literally none left.”
At Melbourne Airport, the line for the Jetstar service desk snaked 100 metres through Terminal 4 as a handful of staff rushed around to manage the crowds.
Nikki Anderson and Dee Hovey got up early to drive from Berwick, in Melbourne’s south-east, for a flight to Queensland, where their children will play in a basketball tournament this week, but their flight was cancelled on Saturday morning.
“We got spray tans for this,” Hovey said light-heartedly as the pair waited in line, hoping to get a later flight to Brisbane.
Thousands of Jetstar passengers are affected by cancellations, including Nikki Anderson and Dee Hovey from Berwick.Credit: Jason South
Luckily, their boys flew with Virgin and were unaffected by the Airbus recall that has caused chaos for Jetstar.
Anderson suggested the budget airline should put on some drinks for the parents of the schoolies affected by the disruption.
“Mums have worked their arse off all week to get the house clean, food in the fridge, everyone else packed,” she said. “The mums have done it hard to get here, and now the mums are impacted!”
In the noisy Melbourne terminal, Jetstar chief pilot Tyrone Simes said about 90 flights had been affected on Saturday.
Explaining the problem, he said a flight control computer on board the affected planes had “shown an anomaly”.
He said this was a result of a recent software upgrade, which now had to be reversed on each aircraft before they could fly again. The updates take two to three hours.
“We have 85 [A320] aircraft [in our fleet]. However, only 34 of the aeroplanes have this anomaly identified.”
Thousands of people, including these Sydney travellers, have had their plans upended by the nearly 100 flight cancellations on Saturday morning.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
Melbourne Airport’s chief of aviation, Jim Parashos, said all hands were on deck to help Jetstar.
“We have engineers taking a look at the aircraft on the ground, and we will get them on their way as soon as we can,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of travellers that are heading up to Byron and the Gold Coast [for schoolies]. We appreciate their frustration, but they’ve been very understanding.”
Sydney Airport said it was “supporting Jetstar as they work to resolve the issue and strongly advise all Jetstar customers to check their flight status with the airline before travelling to the airport”.
Travellers trying to get to schoolies on the NSW-Queensland border are among those affected by Saturday’s disruptions.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
AirAsia flies A320s to Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Bali. Bo Lingam, group chief executive of AirAsia, said: “We are taking immediate steps to comply with the Airworthiness Directive and aim to complete the process within the next 48 hours.”
Footage from Melbourne Airport on Saturday morning showed crowds and chaos as passengers tried to figure out what was happening with their flights.
Saturday morning’s delays in Australia also come after a fire forced the evacuation of Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 1 on Friday night.
At Sydney Airport, domestic Terminal 2 was extremely crowded by 10.30am.
Virgin Australia operates only four A320s, all of them in its regional Western Australia business. The Brisbane-based airline expects to cover any disruptions with its existing capacity in its Boeing 737 fleet.
A sobering sight for travellers.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
A Qantas source said that while it had some A320s in WA, the issue was not affecting its aircraft.
Air New Zealand said it expects service to return to normal by Sunday evening.
“We currently anticipate a total of around 20 cancellations across today and tomorrow, with our schedule expected to return to normal by Monday,” said chief safety and risk officer Nathan McGraw.
“Customers travelling today and tomorrow should continue to check the Air NZ app or website for the latest information on their flight,” he said.
There are 2274 Airbus A320s in service in the Asia-Pacific region, more than any other single region globally, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company.
The setback appears to be among the largest recalls affecting Airbus in its 55-year history and comes weeks after the A320 overtook the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered model.
There are about 11,300 A320-family jets in operation, including 6440 of the core A320 model, which first flew in 1987.
Inside an Airbus A320-200 aircraft cabin.Credit: Getty Images
Earlier, Airbus released a statement saying “a recent event involving an A320 family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls”.
Airbus said it subsequently identified “a significant number” of its aircraft that may be affected.
Overseas, the world’s largest A320 operator, American Airlines, said some 340 aircraft – 70 per cent of its A320 fleet – would need the fix.
In Colombia, the recall is also affecting 70 per cent of the airline Avianca’s fleet. The airline has closed ticket sales until December 8. Other airlines said they would take planes briefly out of service for repairs, including Germany’s Lufthansa, India’s IndiGo and UK-based easyJet.
With Mary Ward, Julie Power, Lachlan Abbott, Rebecca Peppiatt and Reuters
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