The schedules of multiple Wizz Air flights may change due to aircraft issues

Several Wizz Air flights will see schedule changes this weekend because maintenance is required on the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft. This problem is not limited to the Hungarian low-cost carrier; the French manufacturer Airbus must service over 6,000 aircraft, which could cause disruptions elsewhere too.

Sudden high-altitude descent

On 30 October, a JetBlue Airbus A320-200 suddenly began descending rapidly at cruising altitude (around 10,000 metres). Nearly a dozen passengers were injured before the autopilot stabilised the plane. Airbus immediately investigated and concluded that intense solar radiation may damage critical data essential for the A320’s flight control systems to function correctly.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) promptly issued an emergency airworthiness directive. The problem affects both older and neo versions of the aircraft. The planes have been divided into two groups: for two-thirds, simply updating the elevator aileron computer (ELAC)—the system controlling the movement of the tail and ailerons—is sufficient. Until the update is done, those aircraft cannot fly, or may only fly without passengers to the maintenance station. For the remaining one-third, EASA’s directive prohibits installing the faulty software altogether, airportal.hu wrote.

Wizz Air flight schedules may change

If the problem is not fixed, it can cause unintended elevator movements, leading to nose tipping and exceeding the aircraft’s structural load limits. Therefore, using the faulty ELAC software version is forbidden.

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Wizz Air released a statement saying it has immediately scheduled the necessary maintenance involving reverting to the previous software version. As a result, some weekend flights will be rescheduled. The usual process is back: passengers who booked directly will be notified, while travel agencies are responsible for informing their customers of any changes.

This is not the only design issue affecting Wizz Air’s planes. In 2023, it emerged that the Pratt & Whitney GTF engines powering Airbus A320neo family aircraft suffered “metal powder failures” caused by defective materials, leading to serious breakdowns. Because of this, the airline had to ground 37 aircraft by summer 2025, contributing to a 61.7% drop in operational profits.

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Lengthy procedure per aircraft

According to Reuters, reverting the software to the older version takes two hours per aircraft. The airline most impacted is American Airlines, which has 340 such planes. They plan to perform all software rollbacks on Saturday. Interestingly, American Airlines plans to launch a direct Budapest-Philadelphia route next May.

The issue also affects Lufthansa and British Airways but they do not anticipate significant cancellations or delays, nor do EasyJet and Turkish Airlines. However, Air France cancelled 35 flights yesterday due to the problem.

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