With President Trump’s current trade war, we’re of course seeing massive tariffs on all kinds of imports. This also applies to many aircraft, which creates major uncertainty for airlines. On the surface, that’s especially bad for Delta, which has a huge order book with Airbus.
We’ve heard Delta CEO Ed Bastian say that the airline won’t be paying any tariffs on Airbus jets. However, that’s not to say the airline won’t take delivery of any, including some manufactured abraod. 😉
Basics of United States tariffs on Airbus jets
As matters currently stand, new Airbus jets imported to the United States are subject to a 10% tariff. Now, it’s worth emphasizing that some Airbus jets are actually manufactured in the US (including some A220 and A320-family aircraft), so this wouldn’t apply to those planes. Presumably the import of some parts would be subject to tariffs, but not the aircraft purchase as such.
This isn’t the first time that Delta has had this tariff issue on new Airbus jets. Back in October 2019, Trump (during his first term) imposed tariffs on European goods, including new Airbus jets. How did the Trump administration define new jets?
- New Airbus jets are ones that have “no time in service or hours in flight other than for production testing,” or for delivery to the US
- In other words, if a new plane operates a flight to a destination outside the EU other than the US, it would no longer be considered a new jet, and therefore potentially wouldn’t be subject to those tariffs
So, Delta got creative back in 2019, and now it’s getting creative again.
How Delta is outsmarting US Airbus tariffs
As reported by @xJonNYC, Delta plans to take delivery of a brand new Airbus A350-900 in the coming days, with the registration code N528DN. The plane is manufactured in Toulouse, France (TLS), and Delta doesn’t intend to pay tariffs on this plane. How? Well, the plane is first expected to fly to Tokyo Narita, Japan (NRT), and the plane will then enter service.
www.flightaware.com/live/flight/… Tariffs be damned, Delta taking delivery of a new A350 tomorrow (via Japan): www.flightaware.com/live/flight/…
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 28, 2025 at 11:40 AM
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The strategy here is twofold:
- By first flying the plane to somewhere outside of the EU before flying it to the US, the plane is no longer considered new
- The airline will then exclusively use the plane for international flights, and therefore the plane is never actually imported to the United States
It’s easy enough to fly a wide body jet exclusively internationally (which could include between the US and other international points), though it does take some planning. It’ll become a bit more complicated for narrow body jets, but the idea is to keep doing this until tariffs are either dropped, given the amount of money that we’re talking about.
As a Delta spokesperson explained back in 2019, during the last saga:
“We have made the decision not to import any new aircraft from Europe while these tariffs are in effect. Instead, we have opted to use the new aircraft exclusively for international service, which does not require importation.”
Bottom line
Delta has a lot of Airbus planes on order, so on the surface, you’d think the airline is greatly impacted by Trump’s trade war. CEO Ed Bastian has even said that the airline won’t take deliver of any new Airbus jets with tariffs.
However, Delta appears to be using the same strategy it used back in 2019, when Trump last imposed tariffs on European goods. Delta will simply fly jets to somewhere other than the US, and then they’ll enter the US as used aircraft. As long as they’re exclusively flown internationally, they don’t actually need to be imported. At least that was the strategy several years back, and it seems to be the strategy going forward, based on currently filed plans.
What do you make of Delta’s Airbus import strategy?
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