Delta swaps Boeing for Airbus

The BBC has an article about fourteen billion dollars worth of airplanes:

Delta is set to replace its old Boeing planes with fifty Airbus wide-body jets powered by Rolls Royce engines. The order, confirmed by Delta recently, is a victory for the European plane maker over its US rival's Dreamliner 787.
It includes 25 Airbus A350-900 and 25 advanced Airbus A330-900neo (photo) aircraft.
Rolls Royce will provide Trent engines for both types of aircraft and long term servicing in a deal worth another five billion dollars. The order is welcome news to Rolls Royce, which has seen its share price fall by around a quarter since the beginning of the year, following cut backs in military spending. The company issued a profit warning in October of 2014 and earlier this month announced twenty-six hundred job losses as development work on two of its latest engines, the Trent 1000 and XWB, came to an end.
Airbus is reported to have won the contract after promising to deliver its latest A330neo in 2019, ahead of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. The Dreamliner has been beset with problems, suffering several delays before its 2011 introduction, and then being grounded due to battery fires last year.
However, by October of 2014, Boeing said more than a thousand Dreamliners had been ordered by sixty customers around the world.
The Delta deal is significant for Airbus and Rolls Royce because they hope other American legacy carriers will follow its example as they upgrade their aging fuel-hungry fleets.
John Leahy, Airbus' Chief Operating Officer said: "When the most successful US airline says 'yes, we want fifty more of your wide-body planes', you can't debate the fact that it is a massive endorsement of your product line."
The A350s will be delivered in the second quarter of 2017 and will fly routes between the US and Asia. They are expected to give a twenty percent improvement in operating cost per seat over Delta's existing aircraft. The A330neos will fly medium-haul trans-Atlantic routes, as well as some routes between the American west coast and Asia.

Rico says that Boeing (and especially any executives who were going to get bonuses for this sale) is gonna be pissed...