Narrative:

There seems to be some miscommunication between operations and cargo. There have been some guidance changes in reference to the carrying of dry ice in the front cargo compartment of the A320 [series]. On [date] cargo put out the following bulletin that states dry ice can no longer to loaded in the front pit of a A320 [series aircraft]. It would have been nice for the largest division at [company] to pass this info on the front line. Does this new requirement require all checked luggage that is within limits to be loaded in the rear? Advisory: dry ice shipments can no longer travel in the forward pit of the airbus A320 [series]. This change will lead to a reduction in the amount of dry ice that can be carried on the A320 [series]. [Company manuals] are being updated with the new limitations to ensure dry ice shipments are not improperly manifested to the airbus. Why: during recent discussions with airbus; it was discovered that [company] lacked a ventilation modification that would allow for the safe carriage of dry ice in the forward pit of the A320 [series]. [Company] is required to follow all manuals and technical guidance from airbus to ensure a safe and compliant operation of the airbus fleet.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Ground Agent reported communication breakdown between Operations and Cargo [Load Planner] regarding the carrying of dry ice in the forward cargo pit on the air carriers A320 series aircraft.

Narrative: There seems to be some miscommunication between Operations and Cargo. There have been some guidance changes in reference to the carrying of dry ice in the front cargo compartment of the A320 [Series]. On [date] Cargo put out the following bulletin that states dry ice can no longer to loaded in the front pit of a A320 [Series aircraft]. It would have been nice for the largest division at [company] to pass this info on the front line. Does this new requirement require all checked luggage that is within limits to be loaded in the rear? Advisory: Dry Ice shipments can no longer travel in the forward pit of the Airbus A320 [Series]. This change will lead to a reduction in the amount of dry ice that can be carried on the A320 [Series]. [Company manuals] are being updated with the new limitations to ensure dry ice shipments are not improperly manifested to the Airbus. Why: during recent discussions with Airbus; it was discovered that [company] lacked a ventilation modification that would allow for the safe carriage of dry ice in the forward pit of the A320 [Series]. [Company] is required to follow all manuals and technical guidance from Airbus to ensure a safe and compliant operation of the Airbus fleet.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.