AirAsia boss says ‘bizarre’ Airbus software glitch a ‘good warning’ to sector
Tony Fernandes urged planemakers to test software properly and not to ‘rush’ amid the pressure to meet delivery and revenue targets
AirAsia Aviation Group, one of Airbus’ largest customers of single-aisle jets, says testing protocols for aircraft software need to be re-examined in the wake of the weekend glitch that required an urgent update.
Tony Fernandes, the founder of the Southeast Asian carrier, said it was likely the software was not thoroughly tested.
“It seems a bit bizarre, it is something it has to look at, it’s obvious it wasn’t tested,” Fernandes said in an interview on Tuesday. “I’m not an expert but it failed at that height. They have to make sure they get the experts or checks.”
Fernandes said AirAsia was not affected by the fuselage issues and also suffered “negligible” impact from the need to roll back software updates on 96 of its more than 210 single-aisle aircraft.
The software incident was a “good warning” to the industry at large to ensure it has its priorities right, given the challenge of delivering more planes and meeting financial targets, he said.