TAP may be forced to ground 29 planes from its medium-haul fleet as of midnight this Saturday, November 29, after Airbus ordered an urgent software update on six thousand aircraft from the A320 family, the model most used by the Portuguese air carrier.
“Airbus recognizes that these recommendations will cause operational disruption to passengers and customers”explained the company, in a statement.
TAP has 29 A320 aircraft, in a universe of 99 aircraft that ensure the majority of medium-haul connections.
At issue is an incident related to intense solar radiation, which can corrupt data critical to the operation of flight control systems. Airbus, which builds and supplies these devices, warned of the urgent need to update the software, admitting that the operation, although relatively quick, will have a significant impact on the activity of numerous airlines.
The French company acknowledged that the scale of the intervention is likely to cause disruption for both operators and passengers.
This decision was taken taking into account an episode that occurred on October 30, during a JetBlue flight in Mexico, which led Airbus engineers to identify the risk and recommend intervention.