Delta Air Lines Inc.'s chief executive on Wednesday said the carrier did not play a role in pushing an industry-changing deal between planemakers Airbus and Bombardier Inc., as a regulatory spat between the United States and Canada threatened the future of a Bombardier plane program. Delta CEO Ed Bastian praised the deal between Europe's Airbus and Canada's Bombardier, which would see Airbus take an ownership stake of the troubled Bombardier CSeries program, as a net positive for the U.S. economy. An Airbus A320neo aircraft and a Bombardier CSeries aircraft are pictured on Tuesday in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, to announce a partnership between Airbus and Bombardier on the CSeries. Delta has an order for 75 CSeries at a list price of more than $5 billion US. Despite the disagreement, Bastian said that the spat between Bombardier and Boeing does not affect the likelihood that Delta would purchase Boeing planes in the future.

Source: CBC News October 18, 2017 17:03 UTC