Delta Air Lines says it has been hired to perform maintenance and repairs on U.S. Navy's Boeing P-8A Poseidon sub-hunter jets in a six-year deal.
Under an agreement with Boeing, the airline said its aircraft maintenance technicians are providing airframe and engine work on the Navy's Poseidon fleet at its nearly 2.7 million-square-foot aircraft maintenance facility in Atlanta.
Delta spokeswoman Liz Savadelis declined to disclose terms of the contract.
Delta's maintenance technicians perform airframe and engine work on the jets, including aircraft inducts, open cabin and airframe structural inspections, landing gear inspections, avionics inspections, systems checks and even livery painting.
The P-8A is a militarized Boeing 737 equipped with combat systems and more powerful engines for its military hardware and maritime patrol and reconnaissance systems.
The jet is used primarily for anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and maritime patrol, but also for rescue missions. It is built at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton, where it also undergoes special modifications.
Atlanta-based Delta said its Delta TechOps aviation maintenance group is the largest in North America, providing maintenance and repair work for Delta's fleet of more than 850 aircraft as well as more than 150 third-party customers, including the U.S. military.
TechOps employees are already working on a handful of P-8A aircraft, with the first fleet aircraft – aircraft currently used for missions – getting maintenance, repair and overhaul work in September.
The airline said it employs approximately 10,000 veterans, with about 75 percent at its maintenance and repair facilities. Several of them are working on the P-8A maintenance contract, Delta said in a news release.
Delta described the work by its aircraft technicians in a report on its website.
The U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tanker is based on Boeing's 767.
