I had an interesting experience flying today. I had to travel for work, and I bought some ammo (slugs) before heading to the airport for my flight home. I've done this many times and declare my ammo at check-in. I'll usually get a question about factory packaging to which I give the affirmative answer. This time, they specially tagged my bag saying that ammo cannot go on some of the planes in their fleet...specifically the Airbus A321. The plane typically servicing my route is the 717, but the A321 is sometimes pressed into service, thus my ammo had to be tagged for that possibility.

Any commercial pilots on here that can shed light on the "why's" specific to the A321?

I took a look at the tag;
It says "A321 AFT Restricted"...so apparently it's something to do with the aft pit.

I'm just purely guessing since I've never flown an Airbus plane much less the 321. Many aircraft have restrictions on carriage of certain classes of cargo in the lower cargo compartments. It's usually due to heating or cooling of the compartment or because of the fire suppression system.

Ammunition is considered a hazardous material classification 1.4S explosive but there's an exemption that allows it to be carried onboard aircraft. That exemption is ORM-D and it allows carriage if packaged to certain standard and below a certain amount. That's why they ask about it being in the original packaging. The original packaging meets the requirements while they don't know if an aftermarket ammo carrier does, even if the aftermarket box is obviously stronger.

My best guess would be that your airline's A321's lower cargo fire suppression system isn't rated for the carriage of ORM-D materials. Airlines spec their own systems like fire suppression with the aircraft maker so that might not apply to an A321 flown by another airline, their systems might be different.

Thank you Crow hunter. That seems like a plausible explanation.

Airbuses are gay.

My grandfather used to say "When you fly to NY you don't have to get off a bus in Chicago!"

Now you might have to!

After reading this I see my fly back home after Thanksgiving is on a A321, will make separate accommodations for my ammo.

Chris: What airline were you flying? Thanks,

Hawaiian

Update on the tag. So apparently ammo isn't banned from the HAL Airbus 321's. They just can't be loaded in the Aft cargo area.

Shot slugs today...that was fun!

If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going....

Scarebus, no thanks.

There is a very good reason I spent 31 years flying Boeings and NOT Airbus......

Next flight is on an ATR-42.

Good luck...

Not carrying any water for Airbus, but I flew on Boeing's Dreamliner and was completely underwhelmed. The Comfort seats were anything but, felt like sitting on a church pew, except the pew has more padding. The use of self darkening cabin window glass instead of blinds was another problem. I flew to South Africa via Dakar, and the flight over the Sahara was hell. You could completely black out the ambient light, but not the heat that radiated through the glass. Felt like I was sitting next to an oven glass door...........

If memory serves, it was a Delta partner, KLM I believe.

There's more than a few Boeing mishaps in my consciousness. Of late; Lion Air 737-MAX, Southwest 737-400. ...and closer to home for me, Aloha Air had a 737 turn into a convertible. Fatalities in each. I was on a 747 that lost an engine just shy of the midpoint of a 4000 mile trip. Had to turn around.

I'm curious, what specifically about Airbus jets make you avoid them?

Epilogue:
Ended up leaving ammo behind with my friend dropping me at the airport. Will get it when he comes to visit over the holidays. Got clarification on reason for tag from airline employee friend. Something along the lines of Crowhunters comment. Might be another 20 years before I try that again on HAL.

Well, the A320 floats well.... I don’t care for the fly by wire control system, but the new Boeing planes are pretty much the same. I live in a Boeing town and have worked on the older models for several years. Just comfortable with what I am familiar with. Engine failures are not an Airbus or Boeing issue. See engine OEM. Happy Trails

Hate to burst this Boeing bubble, but I was on a 777 when the left engine compressor stalled, had to be shut down, and we diverted in the middle of the night to St. John's, Newfoundland. Happened more than 500 miles feet wet over the Atlantic. BTW, the max altitude of single engine cruise for that aircraft was 22,000'...

Not to mention the Air France Airbus that went sinker in the South Atlantic due to engine failures a few years ago. I’ll bet the engine issues are about equal across both OEMs. Neither Boeing nor Airbus is an engine manufacturer. Don’t fly on 3rd World airlines regardless of whose planes they fly. Happy Trails

That wasn't an engine failure. They encountered icing that caused erroneous airspeed indications which they mishandled causing the airplane to stall.