(Reuters) -Delta Air Lines Inc expects deliveries of Boeing’s (NYSE:) Co 737 Max 10 jets to be delayed until 2027 as the planemaker faces federal security and criminal probes, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.
In July 2022, the airline announced it would buy 100 Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft for about $13.5 billion at list prices, had an option to buy 30 more, and hoped to begin taking delivery of the planes in 2025.
“We were already expecting that if it happened in ’25, it would be at the end of the year,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian told Bloomberg in a Sunday interview. “I’m guessing it’ll be another year or two after that.”
Delta is “comfortable” with the protection it has negotiated against potential delays in its Max 10 contract, Bastian said, declining to go into detail, according to the report.
There are “several issues with the Boeing 737 Max that need to be resolved” and the carrier is in ongoing discussions with Boeing, Bastion told Bloomberg.
Boeing declined to comment and Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Boeing has been under fire since a Jan. 5 incident in which a door plug came off a 737 Max midflight, leaving terrified passengers stranded in the open air.
Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration said an audit of Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems’ (NYSE:) 737 Max production found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with production quality control requirements.