Emirates, Delta Spar Over Spare Part

An Emirates flight from Seattle to Dubai was delayed for over six hours after it was unable to use a spare part made available by Delta Air Lines.

Emirates located a replacement hydraulic part, which costs only about $300, at Delta’s SeaTac maintenance base.

The part was fitted to the Boeing 777 and the aircraft cleared for use, but Emirates claims a senior manager from Delta’s Atlanta base ordered the part to be removed and returned.

“It is sad, in our view, that any airline would deny such standard technical assistance to another carrier based on orders from headquarters that had nothing to do with maintenance or cost, but seem clearly to have been intended to inflict harm on the airline and its customers,” an Emirates spokeswoman said.

The flight was further delayed until Emirates sourced a replacement part from Alaska Airlines.

“Despite this incident, Emirates will continue to render such technical support to other carriers, including Delta, irrespective of whether we agree or disagree with their policy views,” Emirates said.

Delta is one of three major US carriers, along with American and United, who maintain that three Gulf carriers have received over USD$50 billion in government subsidies in violation of Open Skies agreements. The three, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways deny the accusations.

Delta, American and United are part of the Partnership for Open & Fair Skies, which is lobbying the Trump administration for changes to the Open Skies agreements.