Airbus technical issues affect nearly 100 PH flights

MAJOR DISRUPTION Commercial planes are parked at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Saturday after several flights were canceled due to an Airbus notice requiring mandatory software update for A320/A321 aircraft. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — Airlines resumed normal operations on Saturday evening after a technical glitch in Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft disrupted nearly 100 flights in the country and affected at least 14,000 passengers earlier in the day, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) said.

Caap did not provide the exact time when operations returned to normal but the announcement was made at past 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Airbus, an aeronautics and space company from Europe, issued a technical advisory for certain A320/A321 aircraft models to undergo software updates early Saturday morning.

READ: PAL, Cebu Pacific cancel 78 flights after Airbus technical advisory

In the Philippines, the directive has impacted 93 flights, of which 82 were canceled and 11 were delayed, affecting at least 14,000 passengers.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) said the software update affected 75 aircraft.

“We spoke with the airlines, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, Civil Aeronautics Board and we decided to immediately do the software update,” Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez said in a press conference.

“We don’t have final numbers (of affected passengers). It’s a running total of who are affected by the delays,” he added.

Clearance needed

As of Saturday noon, 50 percent of the aircraft were done updating their softwares, Air Carriers Association of the Philippines executive director Jose Enriquez Perez de Tagle said. He noted that an aircraft needs about two hours to finish upgrading or updating its software.

“We anticipate that we will be able to resolve this by within Sunday, so probably noontime, 24 hours from now we should be seeing significant increase in operations of airlines. And hopefully it will be a more normal situation,” Perez de Tagle said in the same press conference.

Authorities added that airlines, upon completion of the software update, must submit a compliance report of their aircraft’s airworthiness for clearance to fly again.

Cebu Pacific said they had 22 remaining aircraft that needed to update while Philippine Airlines (PAL) already completed 11 out of 28 aircraft. Meanwhile, Air Asia said 11 of their flights were delayed while the affected aircraft already finished updating.

PAL advised affected passengers to rebook their tickets, convert them to travel credits, or choose the refund option.

Cebu Pacific offered free rebooking and travel fund conversions for passengers who will postpone their international and domestic flights from Nov. 29, 2025, to Dec. 1, 2025.

Not taking risks

Lopez said the agency and airline authorities received the notice for update around 1 a.m. on Saturday and began the operation around 2 a.m.

Perez de Tagle stressed that airline companies, even though they are competitors, collaborated to ensure the safety of passengers.

“We don’t want to take any risk at all. This directive came from the manufacturer itself so we need to comply,” Lopez said when asked on the risks if airlines flew their aircraft without updating the software.

Perez de Tagle also said that a proactive approach was needed as they “will not allow the dispatch of flights until the software update is completed.”