Delta Air Lines orders A350, A330neo

[Rowan McKeever]

Delta Air Lines' long awaited fleet announcement is now official. 25 A350-900 to begin deliveries from Q2 2017 & 25 A330-900neo to be delivered from 2019. These 50 aircraft are to replace B747 & older B767-300ER. A350 will be predominantly trans-Pacific to Asia, the A330neo trans-Atlantic with some trans-Pacific deployments (think SEA to Asia).

http://news.delta.com/2014-11-20-Delta-Adds-A350-900-A330-900neo-to-its-Fleet-Plan

Not a big surprise I don't think, especially the A330neo which appears to be 'designed for Delta'.

Question raised on another site about whether the A330neo was cannibalising the A350s orders. I tend to agree with a comment made in response to that question, that in this case it isn't the A350 that the A330neo has cannibalised.

[Ian Garton]

Interesting to see a US based airline with such a major Airbus order.

[Thomas Collins]

Not really. Many US operators are large Airbus operators. Simple economics. Best ROI wins the day.

[Kent Broadhead]

Not widebody though. Delta with the ex-Northwest A330s must be the largest, then US Airways (can't easily find US Air fleet stats). None of the others are A330 operators. The A330neo seems closest to a B763 replacement available on a cost/capability basis.

Many A32X in the skies though.

[Thomas Collins]

My response is in relation to "Airbus". Not type specific. Plenty of Airbus aircraft flying in the United States.

[Ash W]

then US Airways (can't easily find US Air fleet stats).

Maybe because they don't exist any more, but their fleet is now with American, and there are 24 A330's.

Then there is Hawaiian with 20 odd.

Northwest had 32, now with Delta.

In total these 3 make up about 7% of A330's worldwide. But not too bad really, especially when the bulk of a/c flying in the US are narrow bodies or 767's, with 777's on longer haul routes.