TRAVELCONSUMERDAILY.COM
SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 2010

PLANE-MAKER Airbus Industrie is developing a "fix" for broken overhead bin latches, which are being destroyed by passengers trying to jam too much gear in hand-luggage lockers on its popular A320 jets.

The problem appears to have been encouraged by low-cost airlines in particular trying to shorten aircraft turnaround times by encouraging passengers to bring aboard a large amount of hand luggage instead of having it stowed in the under-floor hold.

Flightglobal.com reports that a latch modification will be tested for three to four months beginning at the end of July. In parallel an overhead bin structural modification will be tested by the supplier who makes the bins, Airbus says.

FACC, which develops and manufacturers composite components and systems for civil aircraft, is understood to be the overhead bin supplier for Airbus A320 family aircraft.

"Based on the feedback from the in-service and structural tests, a design improvement is planned to be implemented in the second quarter 2011, for both retro-fit and line-fit embodiment," says Airbus, adding that it recommends that operators not overload the overhead bins.

US Airways is among the carriers to have reported problems with the latches. However, the airline says it noticed the problem on new-delivery Airbus narrowbodies.

"We experienced a decrease in bin latch reliability and contacted Airbus to work through the details of modifying or creating a new latch design, as this is a problem with the fleet worldwide and is being managed by Airbus," says US Airways in a weekly newsletter to employees.

The carrier says the first attempt to fix the problem by Airbus "produced an unacceptable latch which was rejected by US (Airways)". It has since evaluated a second redesign and is "scheduled to receive a set of these newly designed bin latches next month".

These new latches will be installed and field tested on one US Airways aircraft and, if no problems develop, retrofit of the fleet will occur early next year.