NI flights avoid disruption as Airbus grounds planes

Airline passengers travelling from Northern Ireland airports have been advised to be aware of potential disruption to flights, after European aerospace company Airbus requested immediate modifications to thousands of its planes.

About 6,000 aircraft worldwide are thought to be affected, all of them in the A320 family.

EasyJet, which has flights to and from Belfast International and Belfast City airports said it has "already completed" the software update and plans to operate its flights as normal on Saturday.

So far, EasyJet's early flights to and from Belfast International are operating as usual while services by British Airways, which uses Airbus planes, are unaffected from Belfast City.

EasyJet said that it will inform customers directly about any changes to their flying programme and "will do all possible to minimise the impact".

A spokesperson added that they are asking "customers travelling continue to monitor their flights on flight tracker".

Flights at Belfast International Airport have not been affected so far, but an airport spokesperson said that any passengers due to travel on Saturday should check with their airline for the latest flight information.

On Saturday morning, Belfast City Airport said "we are not currently experiencing any cancellations".

Aer Lingus said that a limited number of its aircraft are affected and that the airline is taking immediate steps to complete the required software installation.

It said that there will be no significant operational disruption.

It is understood about 80 aircraft are affected at Gatwick Airport.

"We are aware of a directive requiring some airlines operating Airbus A320 aircraft to update software on their fleet over coming days, which may result in some disruption," a spokesperson for Gatwick Airport said.

"This is only impacting a small number of airlines at London Gatwick.

"Passengers should contact their airline for more information."

Separately, Heathrow Airport said the required maintenance on some Airbus aircraft currently has no impact on its operations.

According to Airbus, the majority of the planes can be fixed with a relatively simple software update.

However, some 900 older planes will need replacement computers, and will have to be taken out of service until they can be fixed.

A European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) directive stipulates that, as of 29 November, the planes thought to be affected can only fly passengers once they've been fixed.

They will be allowed to make so-called "ferry flights", without passengers, in order to get to a maintenance facility.