Delta Air Lines Inc. said Monday that it will take delivery of the first of 18 Boeing 787s in 2020, ending long-running uncertainty over the fate of the order.
The second-largest U.S. carrier by traffic inherited the order when it acquired Northwest Airlines and has been in talks with Boeing Co. about the planes’ fate after protracted delays in the aircraft’s entry into service.
Delta said in a regulatory filing that it had reached a deal to reaffirm the order for the 787-8 variant for delivery from 2020 to 2022. They were originally slated to arrive between 2008 and 2010.
All Nippon Airways Co. is due to receive the first 787 in February 2011, almost three years late.
Continental Airlines, a unit of United Continental Holdings Inc., is the U.S. launch customer for the plane, with the first of its 25 due to arrive in the second half of next year.
