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Air travel around the world faced major interruptions on Friday after Airbus ordered immediate repairs for 6,000 A320-family jets, more than half of the global fleet.

The recall comes during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in the US, and airlines across several continents warned passengers to expect delays and cancellations.

Airbus said the recall was triggered by a recent incident involving an A320 aircraft, where solar flares were found to corrupt data used by flight-control computers.

Because of this, the company instructed more than 350 airlines to roll back certain software before their jets can fly again, except when repositioning the aircraft to repair centers, NY Post reported.

Industry experts noted that this action marks one of the largest recalls in Airbus' 55-year history.

The timing only added to the strain. At the moment Airbus issued the bulletin, about 3,000 A320-family jets were already in the air.

Airlines in the US, South America, Europe, and India quickly announced that operations would be affected.

Many carriers reported that planes would need to be briefly removed from service to complete the fix.

American Airlines, the world's biggest A320 operator, said 340 of its 480 A320 jets required repairs.

The airline expected most fixes to be completed within a day, noting each aircraft needed about two hours of work.

A320 Recall Sparks Delays in South America

Other major operators—including Lufthansa, IndiGo, and easyJet—shared that they would also make short groundings to address the issue.

In South America, Avianca faced one of the toughest challenges. According to CNBC, the Colombian carrier said the recall hit more than 70% of its fleet, roughly 100 jets, leading to major disruptions over the next 10 days.

To manage the impact, the airline temporarily halted ticket sales for travel through December 8.

Across the industry, the recall strained already packed repair shops. Airlines have been dealing with long maintenance delays due to unrelated engine inspections and labor shortages.

Aviation analysts warned that hangar capacity is limited, and some jets—more than 1,000, according to sources—may also require hardware changes, which could stretch the grounding period for certain carriers.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued an emergency directive late Friday, making the repair mandatory.

The move followed confirmation that a JetBlue flight on October 30 experienced a sudden loss of altitude linked to the software problem, prompting an FAA investigation.

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