Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane among airports affected globally by recall of Airbus planes

Eighteen-year-old Tom Feeney, from Malvern in Melbourne, and five friends booked their accommodation for this week’s schoolies festivities at Byron Bay two years ago, and the flights to Ballina – the closest airport – last January.

After leaving Melbourne and arriving in Sydney, they discovered the flight to Ballina was cancelled. On Saturday morning, they were waiting at Sydney Airport for a flight to Brisbane, the only flight they could get.

A friend’s mother has organised an UberXL from Brisbane to Byron.“We got lucky,” said Feeney. “Quite a lot of people were trying to get a seat, but there are literally none left.”

At Melbourne Airport, the line for the Jetstar service desk snaked 100 metres through Terminal 4 as a handful of staff rushed around to try and manage the crowds.

Nikki Anderson and Dee Hovey got up early to drive from Berwick, in Melbourne’s south-east, for a flight to Queensland, where their children will play in a basketball tournament this week, but their flight was cancelled on Saturday morning.

“We got spray tans for this,” Hovey said light-heartedly as the pair waited in line, hoping to get a later flight to Brisbane.

Luckily, their boys flew with Virgin and were unaffected by the Airbus recall that has caused chaos for Jetstar.

Anderson suggested the budget airline should put on some drinks for the parents of the schoolies affected by the disruption.

“Mums have worked their arse off all week to get the house clean, food in the fridge, everyone else packed,” she said. “The mums have done it hard to get here, and now the mums are impacted!”

In the noisy Melbourne terminal, Jetstar chief pilot Tyrone Simes said about 90 flights had been affected on Saturday.

Explaining the problem, he said a flight control computer on board the affected planes had “shown an anomaly”.

He said this was a result of a recent software upgrade, which now had to be reversed on each aircraft before they could fly again. The updates take two to three hours.

“We have 85 [A320] aircraft [in our fleet]. However, only 34 of the aeroplanes have this anomaly identified.”

Melbourne Airport’s Chief of Aviation Jim Parashos said all hands were on deck to help Jetstar.

“We have engineers taking a look at the aircraft on the ground, and we will get them on their way as soon as we can,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of travellers that are heading up to Byron and the Gold Coast [for schoolies]. We appreciate their frustration, but they’ve been very understanding.”

Sydney Airport said it was “supporting Jetstar as they work to resolve the issue and strongly advise all Jetstar customers to check their flight status with the airline before travelling to the airport”.

Footage from Melbourne Airport on Saturday morning shows crowds and chaos as passengers try to figure out what is happening with their flights.

Saturday morning’s delays in Australia also come after a fire forced the evacuation of Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 1 on Friday night.

At Sydney Airport, domestic terminal 2 was extremely crowded by 10.30am.

Virgin Australia operates only four A320s, all of them in its regional Western Australia business. The Brisbane-based airline expects to cover any disruptions with its existing capacity in its Boeing 737 fleet.

A Qantas source said while it had some A320s in WA, the issue was not affecting its aircraft.

Air New Zealand says it has cancelled 12 flights in response to the Airbus order.

Chief Safety and Risk Officer Nathan McGraw said aircraft affected by the software recall were issued a fresh directive on Saturday, allowing affected aircraft to continue operating until 10.59am AEDT.

“This means that, where possible, we can operate A320 services today before commencing the required updates,” he said.

There are 2274 Airbus A320s in service in the Asia-Pacific region, more than any other single region globally, according to Cirium aviation analytics company.

Europe’s Airbus said it was ordering immediate repairs to 6000 of its widely used A320 family of jets.

The setback appears to be among the largest recalls affecting Airbus in its 55-year history and comes weeks after the A320 overtook the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered model.

There are about 11,300 A320-family jets in operation, including 6440 of the core A320 model, which first flew in 1987.

Earlier, Airbus released a statement saying “a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls”.

Airbus said it subsequently identified “a significant number” of its aircraft which may be affected.

Overseas, the world’s largest A320 operator, American Airlines, said some 340 aircraft – 70 per cent of its A320 fleet – would need the fix.

In Colombia, the recall is also affecting 70 per cent of the airline Avianca’s fleet. The airline has closed ticket sales until December 8. Other airlines said they would take planes briefly out of service for repairs, including Germany’s Lufthansa, India’s IndiGo, and UK-based easyJet.

With Mary Ward, Julie Power, Lachlan Abbott, Rebecca Peppiatt and Reuters

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