ANA Holdings, Japan’s biggest airline, says it cancelled 65 flights on Saturday after the Airbus A320 recall forced it to ground some aircraft.
The carrier, along with affiliates such as Peach Aviation, is the biggest operator in Japan of single-aisle Airbus aircraft, including the A320. ANA’s chief rival, Japan Airlines, has a mostly Boeing BA.N fleet and does not fly the A320.
The sweeping recall affects more than half of Airbus’ global fleet of the A320 family of jets, which are the backbone of Asian short-haul aviation, particularly in China and India.
Globally, there are about 11,300 of the single-aisle jets in service, including 6,440 of the core A320. The fix mainly involves reverting to earlier software, and although relatively simple, it must be completed before the planes can fly again.
South Korea’s Asiana Airlines 020560.KS said it does not expect any significant disruptions to its flight schedule, with only 17 of its aircraft affected by the recall.
