PIA says unaffected by Airbus recall as global airlines race to fix software glitch

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said on Saturday it remained unaffected by a recall of Airbus A320 jets by the European planemaker, with global airlines scrambling to fix a software glitch that temporarily grounded aircraft in Asia and Europe and threatened travel in the United States.

Airlines around the world reported short-term disruptions heading into the weekend as they fixed software on the widely used commercial aircraft after an analysis found the computer code may have contributed to a sudden drop in the altitude of a JetBlue plane last month.

Airbus said on Friday that an examination of the JetBlue incident revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls on the A320 family of aircraft.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) joined the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in requiring airlines to address the issue with a new software update that was supposed to impact more than 500 US-registered aircraft.

“On the subject of issues with Flight Controls Software (ELAC-L104) on Airbus planes, it is clarified that PIA did not load the faulty software patch,” the airline said on X.