The assembly process in the aeronautical sector mostly uses mechani- cal fastening. It requires the drilling of hundreds of thousands of fastening holes. These holes are critical areas for the assembly fatigue life, thus he drilling oper- ation is a key point. The fatigue performance of a machined surface can be cor- related to the surface integrity, but this correlation seems very broad and com- plex, especially for the drilling of aluminum alloys (commonly used in the air- craft industry). Moreover, different drilling processes may be used, such as axial drilling or orbital drilling. Orbital drilling is particularly interesting for limiting burrs and improving chip evacuation. But the process can impact also the fatigue life of drilled parts. To study this impact, the hole surface integrity needs to be analyzed and its influence on fatigue strength must be investigated. The main challenge concerns the interactions between the surface integrity factors. More- over, the affected layer in drilled aluminum parts is particularly thin, and the ac- cess to the hole surface is geometrically restricted. The characterization of the surface integrity is thus a complex task. In this paper, the correlations between the hole surface integrity and fatigue life of drilled 2024-T351 aluminum alloy are addressed. The study considered both orbital and axial drilling processes. The generated surface integrity was characterized in terms of surface roughness, metallographic observations, hardness, and residual stress. Fatigue tests were performed and correlated to the surface integrity results.