EK Delayed out of Seattle
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EK Delayed out of Seattle
BBC WS News are reporting a 6 hour delay on an Emirates flight out of Seattle to Dubai because a senior Delta Airlines manager demanded the return of a $300 spare part which had already been fitted to the EK aircraft. Apparently it was the last one in Delta's stores.
Anyone know if the report is accurate and if so what was the part and from where did EK finally source it? Is it something Delta might need often?
Thanks in advance.
Anyone know if the report is accurate and if so what was the part and from where did EK finally source it? Is it something Delta might need often?
Thanks in advance.
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I'm sure it must be so hard to find a Boeing part in a sleepy backwater town like Seattle.
Look for the derivative media articles decrying delayed repatriation of family members, some of whom may have been Muslim, pending a final ruling by Delta.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...held-300-spare
Look for the derivative media articles decrying delayed repatriation of family members, some of whom may have been Muslim, pending a final ruling by Delta.
Emirates Says Flight Was Delayed After Delta Withheld $300 Spare Part
by Deena Kamel
February 9, 2017 2:54 PM EST
Mechanical fault stalled Seattle-Dubai service for six hours
Gulf carrier says U.S. rival located part but wouldn’t sell it
Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul airline, said a flight from Seattle to Dubai was delayed for more than six hours after it was unable to obtain a $300 spare part from Delta Air Lines Inc., which has led a campaign against the expansion of Mideast carriers in the U.S.
A Boeing Co. 777 due to depart the American city at 9 a.m. on Feb. 2 was held up by a mechanical issue requiring the replacement of a minor hydraulic component, Emirates says. While the part was sourced from Delta’s local engineering office and installed on the plane, a senior manager at the U.S. carrier’s Atlanta base later ordered that it be removed, it claims.
“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,” Emirates said in an e-mail.
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.
“Having the right spare parts in the right places and in ample quantity is critical to ensuring a reliable airline operation for our customers,” Thomas said.
Gulf Dispute
Delta, together with American Airlines Group Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc., is embroiled in a long-running dispute with the three main Gulf carriers after urging the federal government to block their growth on the grounds that they received illegal aid payments -- a suggestion that Emirates, Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways all reject.
The issue may be reignited after U.S. airline representatives met with Donald Trump Thursday, with the president telling them they faced “big league” competition, much of it “subsidized by governments.”
Qatar Air Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker branded Delta “wicked” last year after the Doha-based carrier’s first flight to Atlanta with the Airbus Group SE A380 superjumbo was directed to a remote gate at the world’s busiest airport, leaving elderly and infirm passengers to disembark via temporary stairs rather than through the usual air-bridge.
At the time, Delta said Qatar Airways was late in trying to secure gates for the A380 flight, which require special gates because of the jet’s size. Delta attempted to accommodate Qatar’s flight, despite the carrier’s tardiness, while making sure it could accommodate its own schedule, a company spokeswoman said in June.
Card Payment
In the incident this month, Emirates said Delta had refused a credit-card payment for the spare and ordered a local engineering provider to remove it from the 777. Code-share partner Alaska Airlines Inc. eventually came to the rescue by providing the part, leaving the flight to depart 6 hours and 24 minutes late.
“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,” the Gulf company said.
Thomas, the Delta spokesman, said it wasn’t immediately clear Thursday why the company originally allowed Emirates to use the part before calling it back.
by Deena Kamel
February 9, 2017 2:54 PM EST
Mechanical fault stalled Seattle-Dubai service for six hours
Gulf carrier says U.S. rival located part but wouldn’t sell it
Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul airline, said a flight from Seattle to Dubai was delayed for more than six hours after it was unable to obtain a $300 spare part from Delta Air Lines Inc., which has led a campaign against the expansion of Mideast carriers in the U.S.
A Boeing Co. 777 due to depart the American city at 9 a.m. on Feb. 2 was held up by a mechanical issue requiring the replacement of a minor hydraulic component, Emirates says. While the part was sourced from Delta’s local engineering office and installed on the plane, a senior manager at the U.S. carrier’s Atlanta base later ordered that it be removed, it claims.
“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,” Emirates said in an e-mail.
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.
“Having the right spare parts in the right places and in ample quantity is critical to ensuring a reliable airline operation for our customers,” Thomas said.
Gulf Dispute
Delta, together with American Airlines Group Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc., is embroiled in a long-running dispute with the three main Gulf carriers after urging the federal government to block their growth on the grounds that they received illegal aid payments -- a suggestion that Emirates, Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways all reject.
The issue may be reignited after U.S. airline representatives met with Donald Trump Thursday, with the president telling them they faced “big league” competition, much of it “subsidized by governments.”
Qatar Air Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker branded Delta “wicked” last year after the Doha-based carrier’s first flight to Atlanta with the Airbus Group SE A380 superjumbo was directed to a remote gate at the world’s busiest airport, leaving elderly and infirm passengers to disembark via temporary stairs rather than through the usual air-bridge.
At the time, Delta said Qatar Airways was late in trying to secure gates for the A380 flight, which require special gates because of the jet’s size. Delta attempted to accommodate Qatar’s flight, despite the carrier’s tardiness, while making sure it could accommodate its own schedule, a company spokeswoman said in June.
Card Payment
In the incident this month, Emirates said Delta had refused a credit-card payment for the spare and ordered a local engineering provider to remove it from the 777. Code-share partner Alaska Airlines Inc. eventually came to the rescue by providing the part, leaving the flight to depart 6 hours and 24 minutes late.
“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,” the Gulf company said.
Thomas, the Delta spokesman, said it wasn’t immediately clear Thursday why the company originally allowed Emirates to use the part before calling it back.
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Do any of the manufacturers maintain parts inventory in key hubs where they have large customer presence for a particular type, i.e Airbus in Dubai for A380, Boeing in LA, NY or Singapore for B777 etc?
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If the part has been legitimately fitted, under the terms of an agreement, then I would have thought Emirates would be entitled to refuse Delta access to it, once fitted and to have asked for police aid if necessary. It may still have needed to be signed off but I would have thought a Boeing engineer, with a telex from the DGCA UAE, could have done that? May have been wise to include the FAA as well. Much more to this than meets the eye I suspect.
Most likely an expendable part (union or seal plate) and the Delta Engineer thought, as most station guys do, that he was doing a good turn but somebody got their kni*kers in a twist over not being consulted 1st. Now you would expect that Delta will have to recertify the part before it can be used by them! However most IATA pool spares would be rotables and cover only AOG situations where the MEL does not give dispatch relief. An hydraulic repair kit might be a pool item and example, a part from it, if EK was not in that pool, then Delta could not supply it, as it would contravene the agreement with the other partners.
I seem to recall Boeing having a large parts store opposite SEA. Is it still there? It must be one of the I better places to need a part for a 777 in a hurray.
In the early days of Virgin Atlantic I had a colleague who knew someone who worked for B.Cal. engineering who did work for VS (so this is coming to you third hand) who said that BA engineering would not supply a part to VS but were happy to do so when it was requested for a B.Cal. aircraft. (Perhaps there was something in "Dirty Tricks".)
Hopefully aviation is now a mature industry so this doesn't happen now. Fingers crossed.
In the early days of Virgin Atlantic I had a colleague who knew someone who worked for B.Cal. engineering who did work for VS (so this is coming to you third hand) who said that BA engineering would not supply a part to VS but were happy to do so when it was requested for a B.Cal. aircraft. (Perhaps there was something in "Dirty Tricks".)
Hopefully aviation is now a mature industry so this doesn't happen now. Fingers crossed.
Do any of the manufacturers maintain parts inventory in key hubs where they have large customer presence for a particular type, i.e Airbus in Dubai for A380, Boeing in LA, NY or Singapore for B777 etc?
Then there is the possibility that the part is manufactured overseas for Boeing and then distributed to major parts suppliers around the world and Boeing ain't one of them.
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Boeing was switching to just-in-time inventory control for manufacturing. No more big warehouses of parts awaiting planes coming down the assembly line. A seal or gasket will probably be packaged as a part of a ship set along with the associated assembly being installed. It would be a major headache to open up a packaged set to extract one part and then not have that entire assembly available for the manufacturing line. Boeing also might bet a price break on parts destined for new assemblies and be prohibited by contract from diverting them to spares (IDGs were priced this way back in my day).
If its an expendable part like a gasket, Boeing probably figures that customer maintenance will keep these in stock, so why bother.
If its an expendable part like a gasket, Boeing probably figures that customer maintenance will keep these in stock, so why bother.
I seem to recall Boeing having a large parts store opposite SEA. Is it still there? It must be one of the I better places to need a part for a 777 in a hurray.
I'm with SeenItAll, strange that Alaska would have the part as they are 100% 737 operator. If it's a 'common' part used on many models, why would it be so hard to source (especially, as noted, when you're next door to the main Boeing spares facility). Something just doesn't add up.