Regulators Warn Of A Faulty Batch Of Pintle Pins For Airbus A320 Family Aircraft Landing Gears

Both the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), as the state of design, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have warned that a faulty batch of aft pintle pins of the Airbus A320ceo and A320neo family aircraft main landing gears (MLG) could result in corrosion and potential cracking of the affected parts. The cracks could lead to an MLG collapse, which, as warned by EASA, could damage the aircraft and injure the occupants inside.

On September 2, 2025, both EASA and the FAA issued airworthiness directives (AD), with the former revising its July 30, 2025, directive, warning operators that after a determination was made that “a batch of MLG Aft Pintle Pins did not have nickel plating applied to the inner bore during manufacturing,” airlines must replace the part and not install the affected aft pintle pins on their aircraft going forward.

Per the European regulator, airlines that have aircraft that could have pintle pins without the nickel plating on the inner bore need to replace them either within 12 months since the date of the first installation of the affected aft pintle pins, within one month after August 13, 2025, which is the date is the original effective date of the non-revised directive, issued by EASA on July 30, 2025, or within 12 months after the aircraft reference date, whichever occurs later.

From August 13, 2025, airlines have been mandated not to install the affected part on any A320ceo or A320neo family aircraft.

The FAA’s AD detailed that up to 1,945 US-registered aircraft, with the directive applying to all manufacturer serial numbers (MSN) and types, including the A321XLR, could require aft pintle pin replacements. The US regulator estimated that a replacement would take 35 work hours and set back operators up to $16,975 per unit, split between $2,975 labor and $14,000 parts-related expenses.

The FAA determined that “the risk to the flying public justifies forgoing notice and comment prior to adoption of this rule because MLG aft pintle pins that do not have nickel plating applied to the inner bore could lead to the development of corrosion with potential crack initiation in the affected parts, possibly resulting in a MLG collapse, consequent damage to the airplane, and injury to occupants.”

Thus, not only is the US regulator’s directive published without providing a chance for the public to comment, but it also has a compliance time that is shorter than the time necessary for stakeholders to provide their input.

In the US, the effective date of the directive is September 17, 2025, with the FAA providing the public to comment on the AD until October 17, 2025.

Two stakeholders commented on EASA’s July 30, 2025, directive, which was later revised, with an Air France representative asking whether a check of maintenance records was acceptable to identify the affected aft pintle pins, with the European regulator explaining that the directive “does not specify a way to determine if affected parts are installed or not, this can be done in various ways, to the satisfaction of the responsible NAA [National Aviation Authortity – ed. note].”

An individual from China Southern Airlines also noted that the affected aft pintle pins are newly delivered or have a relatively long service life. Some aircraft had their MLGs replaced, making it “impossible to determine” whether pintle pins without the inner bore’s nickel coat are still installed on the aircraft with new MLGs.

In response, EASA noted that if the part has never been changed after the date of manufacture, and an Aircraft Inspection Report (AIR) confirms that the coatless inner bore pintle pins are not installed on the MLG, the carrier does not need to replace the part. If the part has been replaced after the date of manufacture, and it is confirmed that the part is not affected by the directive, that specific aircraft can continue to operate with its current MLG.

However, the China Southern Airlines rep also pointed out that EASA’s initial directive text, which was revised, stated that the deadline for the replacement of the affected aft pintle pins was within “12 months since the date of first installation of an affected part on any aeroplane, or within one month after the effective date of this AD, whichever occurs later.”

I’ll break the fourth wall right here and throw in some subjectivity into the mix. While the fact that EASA revised its original AD and changed the part replacement deadlines would usually negate the previous and the upcoming paragraphs, I found this part interesting.

According to the China Southern Airlines employee, using MSN 12343 as an example, which is the airline’s A321neo, registered as B-32K3, and delivered on January 4, 2025, the airline was unable to determine the installation date of the part. “MSN 12343 has been delivered for nearly 8 months,” they said, leaving little time to replace the part, which could force the Chinese carrier to ground the aircraft for a prolonged period.

As such, they requested that the AD include wording that instead said that the MLG’s aft pintle pins should be replaced within 12 months of the delivery date of the aircraft, a request that EASA obliged to.

Data from Aviation Flights Group, which tracks aircraft during their assembly, showed that MSN 12343 was first spotted without its livery and its CFM International LEAP-1A engines at Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (XFW), where Airbus has one of its A320neo aircraft family final assembly lines (FAL), on November 25, 2024. Four days later, the A321neo emerged with its livery and engines.

The A321neo operated its first flight on December 20, 2024, before being finally shipped over to China, or more specifically, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN), where it arrived on January 4, 2025, according to planespotters.net.

Considering the fact that Airbus was pushing hard at the end of the year to reach its annual delivery goal, ending 2024 with 766 aircraft deliveries, 123 of which, including 87 A319neo, A320neo, and A321neos, were handed over in December 2024, it could be assumed that if EASA had kept the old wording of the directive, which had a 12-month installation and not a delivery deadline, China Southern Airlines, and perhaps many other operators, would have been forced to ground their brand-new aircraft within the next few weeks as they were built earlier.

During Airbus’ Q3 2024 earnings call, Guillaume Faury, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airbus, echoed his previous comments about the fact that, at the time – and that remains true to this day – both CFM International and Pratt & Whitney have had their unique supply chain issues, resulting in slower engine deliveries.

“Now we have a more recent situation with CFM that has significantly degraded in the last months, which is causing [in-service problems] again with the fleet and [deliveries] to Airbus because they’ve been short of the engine deliveries they had committed to us,” Faury said during the call.