Delta Airlines has pushed back its Boeing 787 deliveries to the next decade, it was revealed in a SEC filing.
The airline, which inherited the 787 order from the merger with Northwest Airlines, was originally due to take delivery of the aircraft between 2008-2010 – which had since been pushed back due to the two and a half years delay in the program. The airline will now be taking delivery of the 18 aircraft from 2020 onwards, at a rate of six per year.
Some sources close to the program state that Delta owes about $60 million in penalties from Boeing, and the deferral means they will never take delivery of these frames – but are rather keeping the order without hurting Boeing’s order book.
Some other sources state that this is an opportunity for Delta to switch to the GEnx engine, which now has a better fuel burn than the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 which were originally ordered by Northwest. The same sources state that DL may instead convert these orders to a newer 787 variant or be one of the first to sign up for the 777NG.
It is also believed that the new United CEO Jeff Smisek recently met with Boeing to try get some 2012 positions for the 787s it has on order.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Aviation Incident and Accident information base AvHerald had reported a sad incident about a stowaway that chose to hide inside the landing gear bay.
Although this person apparently was a harmless man in need of moving to a country, this also leaves questions about possible similar security threats.

It is now believed that this person had hid in the gear bay not at this flight’s origin ( JFK ), but in an earlier flight of the aircraft.

Original AvHerald report as follows :

“Incident: Delta Airlines B772 at
Tokyo on Feb 7th 2010,
stowaway found dead
By Simon Hradecky, created
Sunday, Feb 7th 2010 16:25Z,
last updated Sunday, Feb 7th
2010 16:57Z
A Delta Airlines Boeing 777-200,
registration N867DA performing
flight DL-59 (dep Feb 6th) from
New York JFK,NY (USA) to Tokyo
Narita (Japan) with officially 193
people on board, had seemingly
performed an uneventful flight
and landed safely.
In a post flight inspection a
mechanics found a dead black
male stowaway in the left main
gear bay.
Japanese Police have opened an
investigation and currently
assume, that the person got into
the gear bay in New York and
froze to death and/or died from
hypoxia. No injuries have been
found.”

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

The Japanese newspaper Asahi has reported that JAL has commited to stay in OneWorld alliance.
According to the newspaper, JAL has ended talks with Delta and will officially announce it’s decision soon.
It is reported that JAL’s new CEO, Kazuo Inamori, and officials of the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan has decided that switching alliances at this stage is too risky for JAL.
Apart from the cost involved with upgrading computer systems and related costs, the risk that JAL and Delta would not receive anti-trust immunity played into the decision, the Asahi reported.
Attempts by Reuters to reach JAL or ETIC spokesmen regarding this matter has been unsuccessful.

Original Asahi article in Japanese could be found here .

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

A passenger onboard a Delta flight from Amsterdam ( AMS ) to Detroit ( DTW ) tried to blow up the plane on descent, yesterday.
The flight, NW 253, was being operated on an Airbus A330 and had 278 passengers onboard.
The suspected passenger, later identified as Abdul Mudallad – a Nigerian, had tried to detonate an explosive device ( containing of powder and liquid ) on final approach. However, the passengers had subdued the man and may be due to this – the device had not exploded.
The suspected passenger had however created a disturbance in the aircraft by lighting reportedly firecrackers or may be a powdery substance, which injured some passengers.
The pilot declared an emergency and landed at 1151 local without any incident thereafter.
The suspected passenger had started his journey at Murtala Mohammad Airport, Lagos, Nigeria ( LOS ). However it still remains a question why were the explosives with him not detected on screening at AMS. It was also reported that the man had been directed to do this, by the Al Qaeda.
It is considered that the explosion was planned for the descent in order to maximize the harm – since the aircraft would fall down to a populated area.
The incident caused the U.S to raise National Aviation Terrorism Alert to orange. Stricter security controls will now be enforced at U.S airports.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review