jamjaruk

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...held-300-spare

Shocking.

skywardhunter

Quite. But pretty much in line with this banana republic's current diplomatic policy.

badgersfly

I'm not sure I would label competitors refusing to help each other out as shocking. You might not like it, but I can't say that I'm real excited or eager to help out my business's competitors when they have issues.

DYKWIA

If you read the article, it appears that there is an industry wide agreement to provide parts for other airlines. If Delta needed a part in Dubai, Emirates would help them out for example.

skywardhunter

But they allowed the part to be installed and then insisted on it being removed. They just sabotage decline at the outset and let them source it elsewhere without wasting anyone's time.

pokeable

"Delta shares parts with other airlines whenever possible through an industry agreement and doesn’t withhold them from any particular carrier, Delta spokesman Michael Thomas said. The item in question was the last spare of its kind in Delta’s Seattle inventory, and company policy requires that it keep the last one on hand in case Delta needs it, Thomas said."

Honestly, really don't blame Delta, given the friction between ME3 and the US legacy carriers.

eternaltransit

Well, it's now a question of he said, she said - EK say the part was installed but then DL refused to take their credit card and ordered it removed, DL says it was the last one and so couldn't have installed it in the first place and that was a mistake.

Given the lack of trust on both sides I think it's an element of mistakes being spun in the media.

DYKWIA

Then why didn't they just say "Sorry, we can't help" rather than installing it and then removing it (when it became apparent it would cause EK big issues)?

If every airline started behaving like this - then there would be huge ramifications. Every airline would need to store spare parts at every outstation.

Madone59

You'd think EK, or any airline, could walk across the street to Boeing and grab the part them selves . Regardless poor form DL.

pokeable

Given that DL is the airline that compared it's frequent fliers to ham sandwiches...do you really expect otherwise?

But yeah, EK should have just gone straight to the source.

eternaltransit

Agreed, but if you've relied on the industry-wide agreements for spares, then there would be no reason to go to Boeing initially as DL said they had it, and authorised its installation.

It was only after installation that DL then changed their minds and had the contractor remove it because they rejected EK's credit card - and then said, after installation, that it was the only one left.

One would hope a company like DL has good aircraft spares inventory management, so either someone is covering a mistake (failing to document inventory properly) or it was deliberately done to waste EK's time.

Getting it from AS was probably quicker (i.e. on site at SEA) rather than having Boeing deliver one from PAE - it is on the other side of the city, after all.

edy4eva

I'm not aware of any DL B777 flights out of SEA. think DL167/166 SEA-NRT-SIN is now a B763.

If this is the case, and that part is unique to the B777, it would be a questionable action.

skywardhunter

You'll probably find that these kind of hydraulic clamps/nozzles, etc are found across various Boeing models, I wouldn't be surprised. If DL doesn't have any 777s flying out of SEA why would they have had the part otherwise.

Saltire74

AS don't have the 777 in their fleet so one would imagine the part is usable on a variety of Boeing airframes.

S

flyupfrnt

Actually, The largest AOG parts warehouse Boeing operates ANYWHERE in the world is across the street from Sea-Tac. If you've ever been landing to the south and sitting on the left side of the aircraft at the window you'd have seen it about 5 seconds before touching down.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/n...ns-global.html