Suppliers, Certification Affecting A220 Aircraft; JetBlue Requests One-Year Exemption Airbus has informed U.S. regulators it will not be able to meet the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) deadline to equip Airbus A220 aircraft with secondary cockpit barriers, prompting JetBlue Airways to request a one-year exemption. Airbus says the reason it cannot meet the deadline is due to certification delays and supplier constraints, according to reports. The letter from Airbus included in the JetBlue filing for extension says, ““Certification of the A220 [secondary barriers] has extended beyond original projections, pushing closer to the July 31st deadline,” the manufacturer says in a letter dated April 22 to A220 operators. “The installed physical secondary barrier supplier’s production capacity … is deemed insufficient to meet” the deadline.
