AviationCircle, Los Angeles, CA (2025)

11/30/2025

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered US airlines to quickly fix a safety issue on certain Airbus A320 family jets after a JetBlue A320 suddenly dropped in altitude and diverted to Tampa in October. Regulators say a recent software change in the elevator and aileron computer can, in rare cases, let intense solar radiation corrupt flight control data and trigger brief uncommanded pitch changes. The FAA’s emergency directive mirrors Europe’s order and requires affected A319, A320 and A321 aircraft to install a software rollback or updated version before carrying passengers.

By today, US airlines say they are essentially done. American Airlines, the largest A320 operator, says all 209 of its affected jets have now been updated and are back in normal service after Tech Ops teams worked through the night. Delta reports it has fully complied with the directive on its A321neos with no schedule impact, and United says the same for the six aircraft in its fleet that needed the change, with only minor delays along the way.

JetBlue, the carrier involved in the original incident, has been among the most affected, canceling about 70 flights on Sunday as it cycled the last of its A320 and A321 jets through the fix, while Spirit, Frontier and other A320 operators report they are wrapping up remaining work between flights and overnight. For travelers, that has meant scattered delays, aircraft swaps and some cancellations over a busy holiday weekend, but regulators and airlines say the heavy lifting on the recall is now largely behind them and the software gap tied to solar radiation is closed on almost all US Airbus narrowbodies.

11/30/2025

A powerful winter storm rolling across the upper Midwest has thrown air travel into chaos today, with more than 1,400 flights canceled nationwide and thousands more delayed, according to FlightAware data. Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is bearing the brunt of it, logging well over 600 cancellations and hundreds of delays by late morning as snow and ice forced a ground delay program and earlier ground stop. Nearby Midway has seen around 70 flights canceled as airlines pause departures for deicing and visibility checks.

The National Weather Service has a winter storm warning in place for the Chicago area and parts of the upper Midwest, with forecasters calling for 6 to 10 inches of snow in some spots and heavier bands dropping one to two inches an hour this afternoon. Strong winds and slick runways are slowing operations from Minneapolis–Saint Paul to Denver and Salt Lake City, as crews clear taxiways and aircraft cycle through long deicing lines.

Airlines including American, United, Southwest and regional carriers like SkyWest and Envoy have issued travel waivers, letting customers on affected routes move their trips without change fees. If you are flying through O’Hare, Midway or any upper Midwest hub today, check your airline’s app before leaving for the airport, expect crowded gates and backups at rebooking desks, and build in extra time in case your aircraft or crew is stuck elsewhere in the storm.

11/29/2025

Shantell “Shannie” Pooser, a teenager from South Carolina with Down syndrome and a terminal airway illness, spent years flying back and forth to Cincinnati for surgeries on American Airlines and its regional partner PSA. Along the way she became friends with crews who noticed how much she loved airplanes and flight attendants. Eventually, they decided to make one of her biggest wishes come true: to work a flight in uniform.

On a special trip for major surgery, American and PSA rolled out a red carpet at the gate, decorated the area and surprised her with wings, a sash and a flight attendant uniform. On board, Shannie walked the aisle helping hand out snacks to passengers and posing for photos with the crew, who introduced her as an honorary American Airlines flight attendant. Her family says the celebration, and the sense of being part of the team, helped give her strength heading into treatment.

American later described her as its first honorary flight attendant with Down syndrome, and crew members say her smile and joy left a mark on everyone who met her. For one day, the airline wasn’t just taking a passenger to the hospital; it was helping a young woman live out her dream at 35,000 feet.

11/29/2025

While headlines talk about thousands of Airbus A320 family jets needing an urgent software fix after a JetBlue flight suddenly dropped altitude in October, this is the quiet scene playing out in cockpits around the world. Engineers are plugging a bright yellow Portable Data Loader into the avionics panel and loading new software into the aircraft’s elevator and aileron computer (ELAC), the system that turns pilot inputs into movements of the wings and tail.

The work follows emergency orders from European and U.S. regulators after investigators found that intense solar radiation can corrupt ELAC data on some A320 family aircraft, triggering brief uncommanded pitch-down events like the one that injured passengers on JetBlue Flight 1230 from Cancun to Newark and forced an emergency landing in Tampa. Airbus and safety agencies say about 6,000 A320 family jets worldwide need either a software rollback or, on some aircraft, a hardware change before they return to normal service. Airlines report that each software job typically takes around two hours per plane, and in some cases longer when hardware must be swapped, which is why tech ops teams have been working through the night to get one aircraft after another cleared.

11/29/2025

American Airlines, together with its American Eagle partners, is currently recognized as the world’s largest airline group when you look at both how many people it flies and how many flights it operates. Industry traffic tables show American Airlines Group carried about 225 million passengers in 2024, more than any other airline group worldwide.

The scale continues into 2025. In March 2025, American operated about 5,950 flights a day, the highest daily departures of any airline, ahead of Delta and United. OAG data for summer 2025 also show American at the top by scheduled seat capacity, with roughly 151.7 million seats offered, confirming its role as the world’s largest airline by sheer volume of flying.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, American runs nearly 6,000–7,000 flights a day to more than 350 destinations in over 60 countries, supported by a fleet of around 1,000 mainline and regional aircraft. Rivals like Delta, United, Southwest and Ryanair are close in different metrics, but as of 2025, American still holds the top spot when you combine total passengers carried and total flights operated.

11/29/2025

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that the airspace “above and surrounding Venezuela” should be treated as “closed in its entirety,” telling “all airlines [and] pilots” in a Truth Social post to stay out of the area. The message comes as the U.S. steps up military pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s government, including recent strikes on vessels Washington says were tied to drug traffickers and a major naval buildup in the Caribbean. Venezuela’s government has condemned Trump’s comments as a threat to its sovereignty.

Trump’s warning goes beyond an FAA security advisory issued on November 21 that urged airlines flying over Venezuela to “exercise caution at all altitudes” because of a worsening security situation, heightened military activity and GPS interference that could affect civil aircraft in flight or on the ground. After the FAA notice, at least eleven airlines temporarily suspended flights to or over Venezuela, and Caracas responded by revoking operating rights for six foreign carriers it accused of joining “state terrorism promoted by the United States.”

For most U.S. travelers the impact is indirect, since direct U.S. passenger and cargo flights to Venezuela have been suspended since 2019. But some long haul routes between North America, Europe and South America may now divert around Venezuelan airspace, adding time and fuel cost, and more carriers are likely to avoid the region altogether while the security situation and political tensions remain high. If you are flying on routes that normally cross northern South America, it is worth checking your airline’s app for updated routings and possible delays as airlines respond to the new warnings.

11/29/2025

Breaking News: An Emirates Airbus A380 operating Flight EK18 from Manchester to Dubai was taken out of service on Friday after a fuel truck struck the aircraft while it was parked at the gate. Local airport groups say the impact damaged one of the jet’s four engine intakes while the double decker was on stand preparing for departure.

The return flight to Dubai was canceled and the aircraft was grounded for inspection and repairs. Emirates has not reported any injuries, and there was no danger to a flight in progress because the collision happened on the ground before takeoff. Passengers were moved to later services while engineers assessed the A380.

Gate collisions with ground vehicles like fuel trucks, catering trucks or maintenance equipment are rare but costly, especially when they involve sensitive areas such as engine intakes. Incidents like this typically lead to detailed safety reviews between the airline, airport and ground handlers to understand what went wrong and to tighten procedures around widebody jets on crowded ramps.

11/29/2025

US airlines say they are nearly finished with the emergency Airbus A320 software work that caused scattered disruptions this weekend after a JetBlue flight suddenly lost altitude last month. The fixes were ordered after investigators found that intense solar radiation can corrupt data in a flight control computer on some A320 family jets, prompting Airbus and regulators to tell airlines to update or roll back the software before those aircraft carry passengers again.

American Airlines, the largest A320 operator in the world, says 209 of its roughly 480 A320 family aircraft needed the fix and that as of Saturday morning only four still awaited the update. The airline expects “no further operational impact” from the directive after Tech Ops teams worked through the night. Delta says it has “fully complied” with the order and that fewer than 50 A321neos were affected, with no effect on operations, while United reports just six aircraft in its fleet needed the update and that only minor delays hit a small number of flights.

Other US A320 operators, including JetBlue, Spirit and Frontier, say they are cycling aircraft through the work while trying to keep schedules intact, and so far the disruptions have been limited compared with early fears of a major Thanksgiving meltdown. For travelers, it means you may still see the occasional delay or aircraft swap, but airlines and Airbus now expect the heavy lifting on this recall to be largely behind them, with the fix in place to prevent a repeat of the sudden midflight drop that triggered it.

11/29/2025

Delta Flight 694 from Detroit to Los Angeles made an unscheduled stop after a dog in the cabin suddenly became seriously ill about an hour into the trip. The crew asked if there was a veterinarian on board; one passenger stepped up to help, but the assessment was that the dog needed treatment on the ground. The Airbus A320, carrying 181 passengers and six crew, diverted to Delta’s hub in Minneapolis–Saint Paul so the owner and pet could get off and meet medical staff.

The diversion added roughly two and a half hours to the journey before the flight continued on to Los Angeles, with the captain later telling passengers that the dog was expected to recover. Delta said the decision fit its policy that “the safety of our customers and people comes before everything else,” and that in this case that meant landing early so a cabin pet could get proper care.

Medical diversions for sick passengers are not unusual, but doing the same for an animal is rare, which is why this story has sparked so much debate online about whether airlines should go this far for pets when it delays a full plane.

11/29/2025

On October 30, JetBlue Flight 1230 from Cancún to Newark suddenly lost altitude, injuring at least 15 people and forcing an emergency diversion to Tampa. The Airbus A320 dropped roughly 14,500 feet in about five minutes, then made another sharp descent before the crew leveled the aircraft and landed safely. Investigators later tied the scare to a software issue in one of the jet’s flight control computers, where intense solar radiation can corrupt data and trigger unexpected pitch commands.

That single incident has now led Airbus and regulators to order an urgent software rollback or update on about 6,000 A320 family aircraft worldwide. EASA issued an emergency airworthiness directive and the FAA followed with its own order, telling airlines they must install the fix before affected jets carry passengers again. The work mainly involves updating or reverting the software in the elevator and aileron computers, a job that typically takes a couple of hours per airplane but is logistically messy in the middle of a peak travel weekend.

As of today, U.S. airlines say they are close to finishing. American Airlines cut its list of affected jets to 209 and says only a handful remained to be updated by Saturday evening after Tech Ops teams worked through the night. Delta reports fewer than 50 A321neos are impacted and expects only limited disruption, while United says six aircraft in its fleet need the fix and it anticipates minor delays on a small number of flights. JetBlue and other carriers are cycling jets through the update while keeping most of their schedules running, and overseas airlines like All Nippon Airways and Jetstar have taken short-term cancellations to get the work done quickly.

11/29/2025

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury has publicly apologized to airlines and passengers after an urgent software fix on thousands of A320 family jets triggered delays and cancellations around the world. The company rushed out the update after an investigation into a JetBlue A320 that suddenly dropped in altitude in October found that intense solar radiation could corrupt data used by the aircraft’s flight control computers. Regulators in Europe and the U.S. have now ordered airlines to install the fix on more than 6,000 A318, A319, A320 and A321 aircraft, including over 500 jets registered in the United States.

Faury said the required work has caused “significant logistical challenges and delays since yesterday” and stressed that “nothing is more important than safety when people fly on one of our Airbus aircraft.” He added that Airbus teams are “working around the clock” with operators so the software and, where needed, hardware protections can be installed as quickly as possible and planes returned to normal service. Airlines say the update itself usually takes just a couple of hours per aircraft but scheduling the work in the middle of a busy travel weekend is what is driving disruptions.

So far, most major U.S. carriers using the A320 family – including American, Delta, United, JetBlue, Spirit and Frontier – report only limited cancellations or short delays as they slot the fixes into overnight or between-flight maintenance windows. In Japan, All Nippon Airways canceled 65 flights on Saturday to complete the work, while several European airlines say their schedules are already close to normal again after intensive overnight updates. Regulators and Airbus describe the action as precautionary: the jets are not grounded, but they want the extra layer of protection in place so crews are never left questioning their flight control data.

11/29/2025

Snow is hammering air travel in Chicago today, with hundreds of flights wiped out at O’Hare International Airport as a winter storm moves in. As of late morning Saturday, city data showed almost 600 flights canceled at O’Hare, after an earlier count from CBS Chicago put the total at 573 cancellations at O’Hare and 76 at Midway with a ground stop in place because of snow and ice. The FAA stop on departures to O’Hare was set to last until 9:30 a.m. local time, and delays are expected to ripple through the day as airlines dig out from the backlog.

A winter storm warning is in effect for the Chicago area and northwest Indiana through 6 a.m. Sunday, with forecasters calling for up to 10 inches of snow and the heaviest bands hitting this afternoon at one to two inches per hour. United and American have issued travel waivers, letting passengers on affected Chicago flights move their trips without change fees. If you are flying through O’Hare or Midway today, check your airline’s app before leaving for the airport and be ready for long lines, packed gates and last minute changes as the storm and cancellations play out.

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