Airlines worldwide work to fix software glitch on A320 aircraft

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00:00Joining me now for a deeper dive on this story is Anita Menderata, strategic advisor and

00:05aviation expert. Thank you for joining us all the way from Dublin.

00:11Anita, people at home might be a bit worried seeing this news. Give us a sense of kind of

00:16how serious the recall is. Is it a good sign that it's being taken care of? Or should people

00:21be concerned that it's happening at all in the first place?

00:24Anita, your question is so important. And thank you for that. This is something that goes back to

00:30the fact that aviation is incredibly powerful when it comes to our imaginations and inspires us. But

00:35when things go wrong, it makes us very frightened whether we're traveling or not. So news of Airbus

00:40actually putting out the recall notification was incredibly alarming to people. What's important,

00:46however, is putting this in context. The A320 is a beautifully engineered aircraft, and it's very

00:52much about the future of flight. One of the reasons why the industry and airlines per se so enjoy it,

00:58it's 20% less in fuel burn, and it's a brilliant aircraft when it comes to city-to-city hops

01:03in a country or in a region. What's happened, however, is that the recall, which was done

01:08proactively by Airbus, which is a significant announcement for them to make, was based on,

01:13as has already been seen in your report, the solar storms that are increasing and the particles,

01:18therefore, that get caught into the systems very, very highly sensitive within the operations of

01:24the aircraft. That, as a result, puts into the challenge, into the actual system that hits what

01:30is called the pitch, which is the nose of the aircraft, or it actually hits as well the roll,

01:35which is the left and right. When this happens, immediately there's a notification to the cockpit,

01:41which then switches off the autopilot and can go into a manual control of the aircraft.

01:47But that will actually initially feel some turbulence as a result for the entire aircraft

01:52and everyone in it. So this does cause concern, but Airbus is really taking ownership of this

01:57issue to identify the scale of the concern. And for those aircraft that can continue to fly,

02:03giving the all clear for them to do so.

02:06Tell us a bit more about these solar storms that have been blamed for this software malfunction.

02:12What are they and how do they mess with software like this?

02:15The solar storms are important because ultimately, as we know, Mother Nature is increasing all of the

02:21environmental activity. They happen in cycles, but when they do happen, these solar storms release

02:27tiny little particles which go into the computer systems of the operations of the aircraft itself.

02:34We know that this is increasing because there's a lot more flight into polar levels of the aircraft

02:39aircraft themselves as aviation increases and the demand for travel and cargo increases.

02:44So we know that this is something we need to keep an eye on. Very importantly, the aviation industry globally will never,

02:51ever, ever compete on safety. It will always be safety first. So as an industry, it is very agnostic in making sure

02:58that all of the information, all of the learnings, anything that is discovered is shared across the entire industry,

03:05whether it's Airbus, Boeing, anyone else, because ultimately we rely on these aircraft and it's the

03:11airlines that are now on the front line of managing all of the disappointment and disruption that's

03:17taking place on the ground. But again, it's keeping it in context. Thankfully, this is just a much smaller

03:23issue than was anticipated, but full credit to Airbus for doing a proactive recall to simply check that the

03:30software that is being utilised by all the aircraft around the world over 6,000 is functioning correctly.

03:37And if it's not, that there's a rollback on the software taking place.

03:41And as these solar storms become more intense, is there a risk they could impact other kinds of software,

03:48not just planes or even kind of the software that they've now updated it to?

03:53I think what's important is that as these storms do indeed increase, equally, the aviation industry is looking

03:59very carefully. So, for instance, working closely with NASA to be able to manage an understanding of what

04:05exactly is happening in that solar space and what are the implications. We've seen with extreme weather

04:11the impact on turbulence. We've seen the challenges that are taking place across the world in terms of

04:17how the environment is therefore impacting our ability to move. One of the great challenges with what's

04:22happening right now is that it's one of the busiest travel weekends in the entire year.

04:28So if we look at it with Thanksgiving taking place in the U.S., there are expected 45,000 to 50,000

04:34flights a day on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. So that's really escalated the challenge in being

04:41able to allow aircrafts and airlines to find alternative solutions. But there are alternatives,

04:47including other aircraft and also using partner airlines to keep travellers moving. Because no

04:54aircraft on the ground is functioning in a way that helps anyone. And it's really about making sure

05:00that the aircraft are continuing to move safely. Earlier this year, Airbus overtook Boeing in total

05:06deliveries. Could this impact its business? It's definitely had an impact in terms of confidence.

05:15There's no question about that. We know that many of the aircrafts, ultimately their customers,

05:21the airlines themselves, are having to make some considerable calculations around keeping people

05:27moving. And there can be absolutely a recourse on Airbus as a result, because ultimately these

05:33aircraft are causing airlines to have disruptions at their cost, which we know that is something that

05:39is within the agreements between the aircraft manufacturer and the airline in terms of performance.

05:44and insurance issues. That importantly as well, this is also about passenger trust, because this is

05:50very unnerving when travellers get a sense of there might be some issue around safety. So this is in the

05:56short term going to impact Airbus's reputation. But very importantly, it's about how the leadership

06:02then moves forward to be able to resolve it. Again, Airbus was proactive in calling out the need for a

06:09recall. They've been very forthcoming in terms of what exactly is happening with the fix. And the CEO,

06:15Jean-Foury, has been very good in saying that they're keeping on top of this. Every single aircraft is being

06:21examined for the safety of the software and where a rollback is being required. They're absolutely making

06:27sure that that's mobilised. But it is, again, a much smaller percentage of the entire fleet than was

06:32initially thought. Anita Mandarata, thank you so much for bringing us your expertise and diffusing

06:38maybe some of the panic around these recalls. Great to have you.

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