Aviation regulator DGCA on Sunday (November 30, 2025) said Indian carriers have completed the software upgrades on 323 operational A320 family planes to address a potential issue related to flight controls.

On Friday (November 28, 2025), Airbus said intense solar radiation might corrupt data critical to flight controls in a significant number of A320 family aircraft and that the software changes required to fix the issue would lead to operational disruptions.

A total of 338 A320 family aircraft with the three Indian airlines— IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express— were initially identified for the software upgrades to address the issue.

Among them, 323 were operational, six were under base maintenance and later it was found that the upgrades were no needed for nine such planes in the fleet of Air India, according to a senior DGCA official.

IndiGo has completed the upgrades on all the 200 of its operational A320 family planes.

Air India had 113 affected aircraft and out of them, the upgrades have been done for the operational 100 planes while four are under base maintenance and nine aircraft did not require the modifications, as per the official.

In the case of Air India Express, upgrades have been carried out for 23 A320 family planes and two such aircraft are under maintenance for redelivery.

On Saturday (November 29, 2025), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued an Airworthiness Directive to airlines asking Indian operators to carry out the requisite software upgrades immediately.

This followed Airbus issuing an alert to operators globally and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) coming out with an Emergency Airworthiness Directive regarding the potential issue.

On Friday, EASA said Airbus asked airline operators to install a serviceable Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC) in the impacted aircraft. ELAC is for flight controls.

Air travellers can expect widespread flight delays and cancellations as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday (November 29, 2025) barred airlines from operating certain Airbus A319, A320 and A321 aircraft until urgent software or hardware modifications mandated by an Airbus safety alert are carried out.

“This is to be ensured that no person shall operate the product which falls under the applicability of this Mandatory Modification,” the DGCA order states.

On Friday (November 29, 2025) evening, Airbus said a recent event involving an Airbus A320 family aircraft revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls following which it has identified a “significant number of Airbus A320 Family aircraft” that may be impacted. This would entail either a software or a hardware upgrade to ensure the fleet is safe to fly.

Airlines say software updates are being carried out in between flights, and some older aircraft that require a hardware replacement may have to be grounded.

Pilots have already been informed by airlines that there will be disruption to flight duties.

“Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and will work closely with operators, while keeping safety as our number one and overriding priority,” Airbus said in a statement on Friday (November 28, 2025).