Emirates flight delayed 6.5 hours over Delta spare part
dubai — Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul airline, said a flight from Seattle to Dubai was delayed for more than six hours after it was unable to obtain a $300 spare part from Delta Air Lines, which has led a campaign against the expansion of Mideast carriers in the US.
A Boeing 777 due to depart the American city at 9am on February 2 was held up by a mechanical issue requiring the replacement of a minor hydraulic component, Emirates says. While the part was sourced from Delta’s local engineering office and installed on the plane, a senior manager at the US carrier’s Atlanta base later ordered that it be removed, it claims.
“It is sad, in our view, that any airline would deny such standard technical assistance to another carrier based on orders from headquarters that had nothing to do with maintenance or cost, but seem clearly to have been intended to inflict harm on the airline and its customers,” Emirates said in an e-mail.
Delta shares parts with other airlines whenever possible through an industry agreement and doesn’t withhold them from any particular carrier, Delta spokesman Michael Thomas said. The item in question was the last spare of its kind in Delta’s Seattle inventory, and company policy requires that it keep the last one on hand in case Delta needs it, Thomas said.
In the incident this month, Emirates said Delta had refused a credit-card payment for the spare and ordered a local engineering provider to remove it from the 777. Code-share partner Alaska Airlines eventually came to the rescue by providing the part, leaving the flight to depart six hours and 24 minutes late.
“Despite this incident, Emirates will continue to render such technical support to other carriers, including Delta, irrespective of whether we agree or disagree with their policy views,” the Gulf company said. — Bloomberg
san francisco — Microsoft virtual assistant Cortana began holding people to their promises on Thursday. At least, to commitments made in email messages.
“Now, Cortana can help you remember things you’ve said you would do in your emails — without you even having to ask,” partner group program manager Marcus Ash said in a blog post. “Cortana automatically recognizes when you make a commitment in email messages and will proactively suggest a reminder to you to follow through at just the right time.”
An update to Cortana — Microsoft’s digital assistant infused with artificial intelligence — enables it to recognize and make note when people promise in messages to tend to tasks, according to Ash. “We’ve all been in the situation where we’ve promised to do something in email, like send your boss a report by end of day, or purchase tickets to the movies for your date night,” Ash said. —