Global airlines race to fix A320 jets after Airbus recall

Airbus CEO apologises to airlines, passengers

- REUTERS

GLOBAL AIRLINES SCRAMBLED on Saturday to fix a software glitch on their Airbus A320 jets as a recall by the European planemaker temporarily grounded aircraft in Asia and Europe and threatened travel in the United States during the busiest weekend of the year.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury apologised to airlines and passengers after the surprise recall of 6,000 planes or more than half of the global A320-family fleet, which recently overtook the Boeing 737 as the industry's most-delivered model. "I want to sincerely apologise to our airline customers and passengers who are impacted now," Faury posted on LinkedIn. Friday's alert followed an unintended loss of altitude on an October 30 JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, which injured 10 passengers, according to France's BEA accident agency, which is probing the incident.