A320 Sharklets: Factory Installation vs Production Retrofit

Every new Airbus A320 family aircraft built from this period came with strengthened wings. The stronger structure was needed because Sharklets, the large wingtip devices Airbus introduced, put higher aerodynamic loads on the wing. With the wing already prepared, the customer could choose what went on the tip at the factory: Sharklets, which cost roughly one million US dollars, or the standard, smaller wingtip fences.

Two ways to get Sharklets

An airline that took delivery with wingtip fences did not have to live with them forever. It could later swap the fences for Sharklets in a process Airbus called a Production Retrofit. The retrofit needed a kit, and the kit added to the cost of the Sharklets themselves.

• Factory installation: the Sharklets are fitted on the final assembly line and the aircraft is delivered with them.
• Production retrofit: the aircraft is delivered with wingtip fences, and the Sharklets are fitted afterwards at the airline's own base or at a maintenance facility.

JetBlue goes first with a retrofit

JetBlue became the first operator to carry out a production retrofit. The aircraft was N821JB, manufacturer serial number 5417, which first flew on 1 December 2012. There is a small twist in the numbers here. N821JB was built before MSN 5428, yet MSN 5428 is the airframe that made history as the first Sharklet equipped A320 to be delivered. That aircraft became 9M-AQQ and flew for AirAsia.

How long the work takes

For the A320s that JetBlue had recently received without Sharklets, fitting them took less than two days per aircraft, because the wings were already strengthened. The older A320s in the JetBlue fleet were a different story. Those wings needed structural modification to carry the extra load, and the estimate was 14 to 21 days per aircraft at a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility. New deliveries to the airline would arrive with Sharklets already fitted at the factory.

The videos

The original post included two videos. One showed Sharklets being installed on the final assembly line in Toulouse. The other showed JetBlue's retrofit on N821JB. Watching the two side by side made the difference clear: the factory fit is a routine step in a controlled production flow, while the retrofit is a maintenance job carried out on a finished aircraft, with far more work when the wing was never built for the load.