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Emirates says Seattle flight delayed 6 hours as Delta withheld $300 spare part

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A Boeing 777 that was to fly from Seattle to Dubai was delayed for more than six hours by a mechanical issue. Emirates acquired and installed a spare part from Delta’s local engineering office but a senior manager later ordered that it be removed, Emirates said. (www.seattletimes.com) More...

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pilot62
Scary fo the general public ? what, this is a state sponsored Airline taking people to Dubai... the city that real life slaves built. Their goal is to feed everyone thru Dubai or Doha and take over, because they have money to buy A380's & Triple sevens with money we provide over years of oil purchases. Come on - we should do anything and everything to limit unfair operations.
So much of our economy depends on air travel, 9 11 destroyed it and years of growth too.
Yet we have to compete in an unfair world market with subsidized companies like Emirates.
And were all just sleeping thinking it will go away.
FrankHarvey
Frank Harvey 1
You forgot to mention that US taxpayers pay for the aircraft carrier battle groups that defend Dubai
honzanl
honza nl 1
they don't defend Dubai, they defend the US's interests there: oil. Fact is that a US citizen on average uses twice the energy that a citizen from the EU uses. So maybe stop transporting one person in a 5.000 pound F150 ?
joelwiley
joel wiley 1
Your Ford comment misses that it is a 4x4 that never leaves the pavement.
mcass777
The plane is assembled miles from SEA. So why not put a call into Boeing ? There is a lot of ass kissing boeing needs to do to please one its biggest customers - hell they probably had one of the EK birds on the flight line in Everett. Am I crazy to think a cab ride could have saved hours here??
mwlong
mwlong 6
I'm sure there is some contract somewhere that prevents the logical scenario which you just presented from actually happening. Your solution would have allowed for an efficient, timely repair. Logic doesn't seem to have a place in "airline games".
JD345
JD345 4
The hype-to-reality ratio on this story is astoundingly out of balance
rds24a
How is it that Alaska has a part for a 777 apart from it being some universal generic piece?
dvbavcon
Dean Brossman 2
If the part was actually installed on the Emirates aircraft, it would be of no use to Delta until it went to a shop to be recertified. The serviceable tag is only good for one installation. It would not fit into robbed parts scenario, because it was not a Delta aircraft it was installed on.
n914wa
Mike Boote 2
Sounds like a sensible policy on Delta's part. I imagine Emirates and Alaska both have a similar policy. This story is written as if "poor little Emirates" is being bullied by "big bad Delta". Most of these G3 against US3 stories are written in the same style. My question is why not ask "code share partner Alaska" in the first place? I guess there would be no hand-wringing story to write otherwise.
scott8733
scott8733 2
Presuming the story's timeline holds as-is..methinks someone from Atlanta with a title beginning with a "C" in it ordered the part removed.

Doubtful that anyone in Delta's Sea-Tac MNTNC dropped everything they were doing and sprinted off with the part for repair on a competitor's A/C, before anyone had the opportunity to assess the min/max inventory order point for this item, or to consider it's critical part nature.

Anyone with experience being in someone else's hub knows about being dropped to the bottom of the bucket as far as priority.
yr2012
matt jensen 3
That's just sad and vindictive. Thanks to Alaska Air for coming to the rescue.
linbb
linbb 1
I agree as that is not the way they used to do business

96flstc
96flstc 1
Typical Delta. Their day will come.
Muchits
Muchits -1
Really "typical Delta?" The airline that got voted as the top airline to work for? https://www.glassdoor.com/Award/Best-Places-to-Work-LST_KQ0,19.htm

Their day will come for what, being one of the best run airlines?
http://news.delta.com/delta-one-worlds-most-awarded-airlines
mwlong
mwlong 2
Delta has a hub in Salt Lake City and claim to have a hub in Seattle. I bet there are plenty of parts in SLC if SEA was short. It would have been simple to put a few on the next flight to Seattle and let Emirates use it. I agree there were other reasons beside inventory that lead them to decide to pull the part back after issue. It looks like Delta's logistics are in question, too.
Mberto1938
There is an agrreement covering lending of spare parts amongst carriers ( in my time it was called ATLAS) and, if applicable, tbis would have compelled Delta to provide the spare whatever quantity was available. If Delta had given and then retrived one this was in complete violation of this agreement ( if applicable in this case.....)
joelwiley
joel wiley 1
Then Delta had alternative facts available to override the agreement?
airnrail
John Watson 1
This is a preposterous story. What better place could there be in the world to source even the most rarely used part for a 777 than Seattle which is within driving distance of the plant that makes the aircraft? As someone else has pointed out that part was second-hand as soon as it was removed from the Emirates plane and therefore could not be immediately re-used no matter how dire the need - might as well have let them keep it and get on their way.
joelwiley
joel wiley 0
How frequently is the part needed? What is the normal inventory level? How long is reorder to receipt delay? If the answers are something like 'frequently', 6, 2 weeks, then Delta may have a point. Otherwise would Alaska stiff Delta?
MrWidgeon
Bill Bailey 2
Considering the not so genial separation between Delta and Alaska I think Alaska would stiff Delta any time they could.
chrisrobey
CHRIS ROBEY 0
Hard to disagree with the commercial and operational logic being applied by Delta! After all, their cockpit crew have to constantly be thinking of the worst case scenarios to keep everyone safe...
tjperez927
Tony Perez -6
Thanks DELTA for making our country look bad!
dtw757
mike SUT 4
Guess you have no clue as to the impact that government subsidized airlines are putting AMERICAN companies out of business because they(NAI, Emirates, Qatar etc etc) don't have the same costs as we do. You don't think that this doesn't happen to us overseas. Lost clearances, slot times, service etc. 35 years in the cockpit and I've seen just about everything from the countries I've flown too.....no one is making our country look bad here, it's just the cost of doing business.
tjperez927
Tony Perez 0
I know--lots of economic rivalry and politics going on. If Delta just said they didn't have a part available to spare, that would have been fine; but if this story is true, then what they did was like giving someone a gift and then asking for it back later. It's not like they were loaning them a whole engine, it was a $300 part- nowhere near the cost of a first class upgrade!!
turnerfam9
Fran Turner -8
This is scary on so many levels for the general flying public.
dtw757
mike SUT 4
why?...They didn't violate the MEL (Minimum Equipment List) for the flight, they stayed and finally got a part so they could leave...Delta just didn't want them taking theirs for whatever reason. It's their part and they can do whatever they want with it. Good for Alaska but I guarantee you id Southwest was asking for a part they'd be looking at all the impacts on their business and coming to a similar decision. It's just business.

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