Airbus will not have A220 ‘secondary’ cockpit barriers ready by FAA’s July deadline

JetBlue has requested an extension to the deadline, following a similar request by Horizon Air.

Certification delays and supply chain hold ups have left Airbus unable to meet the Federal Aviation Administration’s 31 July deadline for introducing secondary cockpit barriers on A220s.

That is according to an Airbus letter JetBlue Airways has filed with the FAA as part of the airline’s request for a one-year extension to the deadline.

JetBlue’s request comes several weeks after the FAA approved a separate one-year extension applicable to some Embraer 175s.

At issue is a 2023 FAA rule requiring new aircraft be equipped with “installed physical secondary barriers” — devices intended to provide better protection against passengers accessing the cockpit.

The FAA had initially set an August 2025 deadline for compliance, but last year granted the US airline industry a roughly one-year reprieve, until 31 July 2026.

Now Airbus says A220 barriers will not be ready in time.

“Certification of the A220 [secondary barriers] has extended beyond original projections, pushing closer to the July 31st deadline,” says the manufacturer in a 22 April letter to A220 operators. “The IPSB supplier’s production capacity… is deemed insufficient to meet the” deadline.

The letter also says that after Airbus releases manuals for the barriers, airlines will need 210 days for training and other compliance requirements. Airbus expects to have its A220 secondary barrier certified, and to issue the manuals, in the third quarter.

The manufacturer does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

JetBlue seeks an exemption from the rule through 31 July 2027.

The FAA weeks ago approved a similar exemption, also through end-July 2027, for E175s operated by Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group. That carrier requested the extension after Embraer said it needed more time to finalise cockpit barriers for Horizon’s jets.

The Air Line Pilots Association opposed Horizon’s extension, noting that manufacturers have had years to prepare for the cockpit-barrier rule, which originated as a response to the terrorist attacks of 2001.