(Reuters) – Delta Air Lines Inc expects the deliveries of Boeing Co’s 737 Max 10 aircraft to be pushed out to as late as 2027, as the planemaker faces federal safety and criminal reviews, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.
The airline announced in July 2022 that it would buy 100 Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets worth about $13.5 billion at list prices and has options to buy another 30 and was looking to begin receiving the planes in 2025.
“We were already anticipating if it came in ‘25, it’d be late in the year,” Delta’s Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian told Bloomberg in an interview Sunday. “My guess is it will be another year or two beyond that.”
Delta is “comfortable” with protections it negotiated against possible delays in its contract to buy the Max 10, Bastian said, declining to be more specific, according to the report.
There are “several issues with the Boeing 737 Max “that need to be addressed,” and the carrier is in ongoing discussions with Boeing, Bastion told Bloomberg.
Delta and Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Boeing has been under fire since a Jan. 5 incident when a door plug blew off a 737 MAX plane in mid-flight, exposing frightened passengers to the outside air.
The Federal Aviation Administration earlier this month said the agency’s 737 MAX production audit into Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler and Aurora Ellis)
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