Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday that the carrier will defer new aircraft that are impacted by tariffs. The Atlanta-based airline expects to receive a handful of new aircraft deliveries this year, all of which are from European planemaker Airbus.
“Obviously, in this environment, we are going to work and we are working very closely with Airbus, which is the only [manufacturer] we’ve got deliveries coming from – for the balance of this year,” he added during an earnings call. “They are a great partner. We’ll do our very best to see what we have to do to minimize tariffs.”
This year, the airline planned to take delivery of 43 aircraft, per its 2024 annual filing. This includes A220, A321neo, A330neo, A350-900, and A350-1000 models.
According to Delta CFO Dan Janki, the airline will net around 10 additional aircraft in 2025 when factoring in retirements.
“But the one thing that you need to know we are very clear on is that we will not be paying tariffs on any aircraft deliveries we take. These times are pretty uncertain,” Bastian continued.
If a 20% incremental cost is put on top of an aircraft’s standard price, Bastian said “it gets very difficult to make that math work.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the White House said it would pause tariffs for 90 days on nonretaliating countries. It remains unclear how this could impact Airbus, which manufactures jets in France and Canada.
“We will defer any deliveries that have a tariff on it,” Bastian concluded.
