The FAA wants a fuel line checked on some Delta, JetBlue and Breeze Airbus A220s. It sounds worse than it is, and here is why.
The A220 Cannot Catch A Break
Last year I wrote about the A220 family engine troubles grounding a big share of the fleet, and the type has spent much of the past two years living down a reputation for reliability problems it did not entirely earn. The engines were the issue then, a powder-metal defect in the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofans that pulled airplanes out of service across the world, just the like the A320 family. This time it is a fuel line, and the fix is less serious than other air worthiness directives.
The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a new directive covering a fuel hose on certain A220-100 and A220-300 aircraft, the same jet Delta, JetBlue and Breeze have turned into a staple of short and medium US routes. It would replace a 2021 order on the same part, and it follows a similar directive that Canada’s regulator issued about a year earlier. No aircraft should require extensive grounding as it did with the fan blade issues.
The fix is a visual inspection of the hose, with a replacement only if an operator finds the twist. The FAA estimates the rule reaches 13 US-registered A220s, nine carried over from the 2021 directive this one supersedes and four newly added. The inspection runs about $850 per airplane. If a carrier does find a twisted hose, the pylon rework climbs to roughly $10,000. No A220 has had a fuel-line fire tied to this condition, and the order is preventive and it affects a relatively small number of aircraft.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
