Source: Radio New Zealand
An Iberia Airbus A320-251N prepares for takeoff in Madrid, Spain, on 12 October, 2025. AFP/ Urban and Sport – Joan Valls
The Airbus A320 is a “very good aircraft to fly” and has been safely flying for more than 40 years, an aviation expert says.
It comes after more than 6000 of its fleet were grounded at the weekend to repair a critical software issue, causing significant chaos for travellers.
The upgrade followed an investigation into a incident back in October where an Airbus aircraft experienced a brief loss of altitude, Ashok Poduval from Massey University’s school of aviation told Morning Report.
That flight was a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey in the United States, on 30 October.
The upgrade followed a report by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency into the incident.
Poduval said the delay in grounding the fleet following the incident was because of the time it took to do the investigation.
“They have to do an investigation because it could be so many factors and once the incident is reported, it takes some time to investigate it,” Poduval said.
“You can’t ground a fleet of over 11,000 aircraft based on something that happened. We all have read about turbulence incidents that have caused sudden drop in altitude etcetera, so once an investigation is done and if there is a cause that is determined to be related to the aircraft, then that’s when the action is taken immediately.”
As a result, more than 6000 aircraft went through a software upgrade, but Poduval was not aware of the technical details of what the upgrade was.
Air New Zealand said all A320 updates would be completed by Sunday evening, with the flight schedule expected to return to normal on Monday.
Poduval said he was no aware if such upgrades would become more necessary as the use of technology on planes continued to increase.
But he said the aircraft were very good.
“This is probably the first event where they’ve had to ground half the fleet and do a software upgrade. Nearly 40 years the aircraft has flown very safely, I’ve flown the aircraft,” he said.
“It’s a very good aircraft to fly.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
