Delta Says It Won’t Be Paying Tariffs On New Airbuses

The CEO of Delta Air Lines says he has the threat of import tariffs on dozens of new Airbus aircraft figured out. Ed Bastian said he's simply not going to pay them. The airline announced it would pause deliveries from Airbus factories in Canada and Europe to avoid the blanket 10% tariff that is now in effect on virtually all goods imported to the U.S. Delta was expecting 20 A350s by the end of this year, but the number of A220s from a plant near Montreal, Quebec, wasn't announced. “We’ll do our very best to see what we have to do to minimize tariffs,” he was quoted as saying on the airline's April earnings call. “But the one thing that you need to know we’re very clear on is that we will not be paying tariffs on any aircraft deliveries we take.” He later said there's simply no point in taking the planes if there is 10-20% added to the price, as was initially declared by Trump. “It gets very difficult to make that math work,” he said.

Bastian made the comments before President Donald Trump paused many of the tariffs he invoked on April 6 but retained the blanket 10% tariff applied to goods from almost all countries. Bastian said his airline or any other company shouldn't have to negotiate with Trump over trade rules. “We hope that this issue will be resolved through the trade discussions, as compared to actions either Delta or Airbus have to take,” he said. The pause in deliveries coincides with a decrease in travel demand and makes the need for new hardware less urgent.