Airbus says precautions complete on China's A320 fleet

Work has been completed on all A320 family aircraft in the Chinese civil aviation fleet, with all flights operating normally, Airbus announced on Monday.

The precautionary measures were mandated by Chinese aviation authorities and the European aerospace company due to concerns about the performance of flight control systems under certain conditions, with the work completed on Sunday.

Airbus said the measures were carried out in accordance with airworthiness directives and its own technical documentation.

Globally, work has been completed on the majority of the roughly 6,000 aircraft subject to the concerns, with Airbus supporting airlines to return the remaining planes, said to be less than 100, to service as soon as possible, the company stated.

Airbus expressed regret over the impact the preventive steps may have had on airline operations and passengers while stating that safety is always the company's top priority.

The preventative measures follow an Airbus analysis of a recent incident involving an A320-series jet, which found that intense solar radiation could corrupt certain critical data affecting the normal performance of the flight-control system.

The company issued an Alert Operators Transmission (AOT) early on Saturday, directing carriers to immediately install applicable software or replace hardware to remove the potential safety risk.