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Delta Swipes New Airbus Engines From Europe To Avoid Tariffs And Put Grounded U.S. Aircraft Back In The Air Instead





Delta does not want to pay tariffs on new aircraft. Rather than simply threatening to cancel Airbus orders, however, the airline is getting rather clever. Instead, Delta is removing the engines from Airbus A320s awaiting delivery from Europe and shipping them back to the U.S., reports The Detroit News. These new engines will replace faulty ones on grounded A320s here, returning them to the air. 

Because the A320’s Pratt & Whitney engines were made in the USA, they are not subject to the 10% tariff that the replacement aircraft they’re being stripped from would be. This creates an unexpected loophole that Delta seems happy to exploit. Delta and other airlines have grounded some A320 aircraft due to problems with their original engines. While waiting for a solution to the original problem, Delta can install the new engines and put these planes back into service.

Meanwhile, the donor A320s will remain in Europe without engines, waiting patiently for a resolution to the very dumb tariffs. In an unrelated issue, regulators have not yet certified the seats on these planes for some reason, so Delta couldn’t use them immediately, regardless of tariffs. Stripping their engines to get the A320s grounded in the U.S. with certified seats flying again seems like the fastest way to put more planes in the air. Bypassing tariffs in the process is icing on the cake.

Tariffs don’t work

This is not the first instance of “creative accounting” that Delta has used to circumvent tariffs. In the past, Delta took delivery of Airbus aircraft in Japan, rather than the U.S. as originally planned. Then, Delta assigned these aircraft to the same long-haul flights to the U.S. they would have flown if they had been registered here. The operational result is the same, but without having to pay an extra 10% tariff.

While Airbus benefits from these creative loopholes, competitor Boeing still suffers from the tariffs that were intended to protect it. Chinese airlines rejected Boeing aircraft after retaliatory tariffs priced them out of reach. This could leave the U.S. as the only market where Boeing is competitive, but not if airlines prefer to follow Delta’s lead and stick with Airbus instead. Some passengers prefer Airbus to Boeing, maybe because Airbus doesn’t throw away missing door plug bolts during construction.



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