FAA Bans Shoddy Airbus Fixes to Keep Planes Aloft
Published Date: 2/13/2025
Proposed Rule
Summary
The FAA is updating safety rules for many Airbus A319, A320, and A321 airplanes to stop certain repairs that could be unsafe. This change affects airlines and maintenance crews, who must follow the new rules to keep planes safe. Comments on these updates are open until March 31, 2025, and the changes might mean extra work and costs for repairs.
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 4 costs, 0 mixed.
Mandatory wing inspections and repairs
If you operate affected Airbus A319/A320/A321 airplanes with Sharklets, the FAA would require repetitive detailed inspections of the left- and right-hand wing manhole access panel attachment holes (bottom wing skin panels 2, between rib 13 and rib 23) and any required corrective repairs. These actions are required by incorporation of EASA AD 2024-0230 (dated December 2, 2024) into the FAA AD and must be done within the compliance times in that AD.
More airplane models now covered
The proposed AD replaces AD 2021-25-14 and expands applicability to include additional Airbus A319, A320, and A321 variants, specifically adding new-engine-option (NEO) configurations and other models listed in paragraphs (c)(1)–(3) of the proposed AD. That means more operators of those listed models must follow the inspection and repair requirements.
FAA cost estimate for required actions
The FAA estimates the basic required actions would take 14 work-hours at $85 per hour (labor cost $1,190) per airplane, affecting 1,650 U.S.-registered airplanes, for a total estimated cost to U.S. operators of $1,963,500. The FAA also states it has no definitive data to estimate additional on-condition (follow-up) action costs.
Certain SRM repair tasks prohibited; approved repairs required
The rule would prohibit accomplishing a repair using certain Structural Repair Manual (SRM) tasks (EASA noted SRM tasks 57-21-11-300-010, -021, and -025 were deactivated). If any cracking is detected, the AD requires the cracking to be repaired before further flight using a method approved by the Manager, AIR-520 (FAA), or EASA, or Airbus SAS's EASA Design Organization Approval (DOA), and a DOA approval must include the DOA-authorized signature.
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