Holiday Ayo - ANA Holdings, Japan's largest airline, announced the cancellation of 65 flights on Saturday (November 29) following a recall order for Airbus A320 aircraft, forcing the grounding of several of its fleet.

ANA, along with its subsidiaries, Peach Aviation, is Japan's largest operator of Airbus single-aisle aircraft, including the A320 series.

Meanwhile, ANA's main competitor, Japan Airlines, primarily operates a Boeing fleet and does not operate the A320.

This massive recall affects more than half of Airbus' global fleet of A320 family jets, which are the backbone of short-haul flights in Asia, particularly to China and India.

Globally, there are approximately 11,300 single-aisle jets of the A320 series in operation, including 6,440 core A320s.

The required repairs primarily involve a rollback to older software. While relatively simple, these repairs must be completed before the aircraft can be allowed to fly again.

In South Korea, Asiana Airlines stated that it does not expect significant disruption to its flight schedule, as only 17 of its aircraft are affected by the recall.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury apologized to airlines and passengers for the sudden recall of 6,000 A320 family aircraft.

As reported by Reuters, this number covers more than half of the global fleet of the A320 family, which recently overtook the Boeing 737 as the most delivered aircraft model in the aviation industry.

"I want to extend my sincere apologies to our airline customers and the passengers affected today," Faury wrote on LinkedIn.

However, Asian aviation analyst Brendan Sobie said the software update was "not as disruptive as some might think," although "it did create some short-term operational challenges."

The recall warning, issued on Friday (November 28), follows an unintentional loss of altitude on a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, on October 30.

The incident injured 10 passengers, according to the French accident agency, BEA, which is investigating.

Interestingly, the timing of this recall warning was considered fortunate for some airlines.

The warning arrived at a time of day when many European and Asian airlines were reducing their flight schedules, allowing time for repairs.

However, in the United States, the warning came midday ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel weekend.