Delta Files Lawsuit Against Ex-Im Bank, Claims Bank's Loans Hurt Domestic Airlines
Delta Airlines filed suit against the Export-Import Bank April 3, alleging the Bank’s loans for aircraft exports to foreign airlines harm U.S. airlines and their employees. Filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., the suit claims the billions of dollars in financing Ex-Im has given to airlines -- including national carriers in South Korea, Poland and Dubai -- allow those companies to recoup investment in new aircraft faster or reduce customer ticket prices. “Unsubsidized U.S. airlines will be forced to respond by reducing their prices and reducing or altogether eliminating their capacity to serve those routes where they compete with Bank-subsidized foreign airlines,” court documents said. Delta wants a federal judge to block Ex-Im approval of financial assistance -- more than $100 million in each case -- for those carriers purchasing so-called widebody aircraft. Hawaiian Airlines and the Airline Pilots Association are also plaintiffs in the case.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
This is not the first complaint Delta has lodged against Ex-Im. Last year, the company filed another case challenging the Bank’s practice of “disregarding the adverse economic impacts of the aircraft transactions it subsidizes.” A judge found that while domestic airlines had a right to sue the Bank, Ex-Im was allowed to exempt from its economic analyses transactions which do not result in foreign production of an exportable good. That case is currently on appeal before the D.C. Circuit.