Delta Air Lines has confirmed it will postpone the entry into service of its Airbus A220 beyond a scheduled date of 31 January, due to an ongoing US government shutdown that has held up certification processes.
The airline had planned to operate the A220-100 on flights from New York LaGuardia airport to Boston and Dallas/Fort Worth, but will now deploy other aircraft on the routes, says a Delta spokesperson.
"Changes are expected to be fully visible in schedules on Saturday," he adds. "No customer impact is expected as a result of this equipment change and no flights will be cancelled because of [the] A220 certification."
The Atlanta-based carrier had previously warned that its inaugural A220 revenue flights will likely be delayed due to the government shutdown, which has led to furloughs of US Federal Aviation Administration employees required to complete certification processes.
Delta took delivery of its first A220 in October 2018 and had planned to deploy the aircraft to other markets including Detroit, Houston and Salt Lake City.
Earlier this month, the carrier upgauged its A220 order to a total of 90 aircraft comprising 40 A220-100s and 50 A220-300s.
The airline is among a growing number of US carriers being forced to delay plans for new service and aircraft operations due to the ongoing government shutdown. Southwest Airlines is in a holding pattern for its planned Hawaii service, while Alaska Airlines recently postponed the start of flights at Paine Field airport.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
