Delta Air Lines has warned that it will defer deliveries of new Airbus aircraft built in Europe or Canada while President Trump’s tariffs remain in force. The airline is expected to start receiving the first of 20 Airbus A350-1000 widebody aircraft that are built in France next year.
The news came during Delta’s webcast of its first-quarter earnings, in which the airline revealed that it would cut costs and slash capital expenditure as growth suddenly stalled in February on the back of the Trump administration’s economic policies.
Within its mainline fleet, Delta operates a diverse mix of various aircraft types from both US-made Boeing airplanes and European aerospace giant Airbus, with the A350 dual-aisle jet widely regarded as the airline’s flagship aircraft.
Delta already operates 35 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, but the airline has an additional 15 more on order, along with 20 stretched A350-1000 aircraft and options for 20 more.
The first A350 is expected to be delivered in 2026, although that could be deferred indefinitely, both because of tariffs that could increase the cost of the multi-million-dollar plane by between 10% and 20% (the former being the baseline tariff and the latter being an EU specific tariff that has now been postponed).
“Obviously, in this environment, we are going to work, and we are working very closely with Airbus, which is the only airline [aircraft manufacturer] we’ve got deliveries coming from for the balance of this year,” Ed Bastian said during the webcast.
“They’ve been a great partner, they are a great partner, and we’ll do our very best to see what we have to do to minimize tariffs, but the one thing that you need to know we are very clear on is that we won’t be paying tariffs on any aircraft deliveries we take.”
“These times are pretty uncertain, and if you start to put a 20% incremental cost on top of an aircraft, it gets very difficult to make that math work. We’ve been very clear with Airbus on that,” Bastian continued.
More broadly, however, Delta may no longer have a need for the new A350 next year.
As it stands, Delta says it intends to stem planned growth, pulling back capacity across its network as 2025 progresses and travelers pull back discretionary spending on travel.
Closer to home, Delta has 69 Airbus A220-300 aircraft on order for its domestic and short-haul international network, and while Airbus has an assembly line for these aircraft in Mobile, Alabama, many of the parts are built in Europe and Canada.
Delta also said it planned to bring forward the retirement of older aircraft, in particular, Boeing 757 and 767s, as well as some Airbus A319s and A320s, which might be sent to the boneyard a lot sooner than anticipated.
