Says Talks Are Still Underway... But Leaves Order Off SEC Filing

Few -- if any -- airline industry analysts and pundits expect Delta Air Lines to hold onto the 18-plane deal Northwest Airlines signed in 2005 for Boeing's upcoming 787, four years before that airline was acquired by Delta. Publicly, Delta has said only talks remain underway about the future of the order... but behind the scenes, it appears a cancellation is looming.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that in a filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Delta confirmed it has dropped that order from its books.

"We have excluded from (the report) our order for 18 B-787-8 aircraft," Delta stated, according to the P-I. "The Boeing Company has informed us that Boeing will be unable to meet the contractual delivery schedule for these aircraft. We are in discussions with Boeing regarding this situation."

As ANN reported, news first surfaced in December 2008 Delta planned to cut back -- or eliminate -- the 787 order placed by Northwest in May 2005. The order survived the carrier's subsequent bankruptcy filing, four months later... and endured even as Boeing has been forced to repeatedly delay target delivery dates for the problematic airliner.

With Delta's recent acquisition of Northwest, however, the new owners are taking a hard look at what planes they really need. The answer to that question appears to be the Boeing 777-200LR; Delta has already received two of the aircraft, and is slated to receive eight more over the next three years.

Making that decision an even easier one for Delta is the fact the 787 is over two years late at this point. In fact, the first test plane hasn't even flown yet.

In the SEC regulatory filing, Delta disclosed it recently added eight more -200LR orders to its books... with options for 10 more.

Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence Delta plans to convert at least a few of those 787 orders to Triple-7s, neither Boeing nor the Atlanta-based airline are ready to confirm the switch just yet.

"The [Northwest 787] orders are still on the books," a Boeing spokesman said Tuesday.

Boeing has seen 31 orders for the 787 cancelled so far in 2009 -- leaving the planemaker with a -13 plane order count so far for the year.

FMI: www.delta.com, www.boeing.com