Originally Posted by Ship741

Disclaimer: Not a DL pilot, I just lurk here.

The fleet plan is something I watch closely and it changes almost daily. Certainly weekly. The answer to your question is highly time dependent.

Right now, we have about 100 more A321ceo's coming, and 100 A321neo firm orders and 100 more A321neo options. If all are exercised, they will all be on property by the end of 2023, and if there are no more 320/319's retired by then (seems likely that at least 20-30 will go perhaps more by then) we would have about 425 A319/320/321 in the fleet.

There are about 60-70 more of the craptastic B737-900's coming.....these should all deliver over the next 2-3 years.

There are still 19 more A350's to come, though 10 were deferred for a year or two, the next 9 should arrive fairly quickly (over the next year or less). We did not plan the introduction properly with regard to pilot training and are still having to do many pilot training flights in order for guys/gals to get their landings.

We have 25 A330neo's coming beginning in April 2019. 767-300ERs are going to trickle out of the fleet slowly, a few more this year including the 1500s and unfortunately ships 182/3.

We were supposed to retire about 38 MD88s this year, but when it became apparent that BBD was going to lose the dumping case, 14-15 were put back into the fleet. Now that BBD has won, who knows how quickly they can spool up production? The 88s that were extended are being flown out until their next heavy check date and the plan to put ADS-B and GPS on them is in full force. The MD90s are a little more difficult due to the fact that the only engine overhaul shop in the world for those engines is in New Zealand and they are charging us an arm and a leg for overhauls. Some are going into temporary park to rob engines, others are being retired for good (slowly).

The real question is the 757/767. Nothing really replaces this market segment in seating size/range capability. The company recently decided to put 5 more 757s into the ETOPS program, originally 15 were asked for. The 739 ETOP version can't fly west coast to Hawaii without bumping customers on many days. Nothing is due to deliver in this segment until Boeing can flesh out the new middle of market airplane, which they say will EIS in 2024-25.

Its just a WAG on my part, but I would guess that we may start getting CSeries aircraft in Sept/October. I think Delta wants them ASAP, but who knows? I don't see a need to wait on MOB produced planes now, and we need the 110 seaters yesterday. I see a follow on order for CS300's and Delta becoming the launch customer for the CS500 at some point.

I think that the net aircraft count will continue to slowly grow 10-20 airplanes a year from the current approximate 860 that we have flying.

Originally Posted by Rayeli

Latest info from network posted on deltanet shows first passenger flight in July 2018. We’ll see if that holds or gets pushed back.

Originally Posted by gloopy

That seems to be somewhat optimistic but we'll see. Certainly possible but I'd be surprised.

Originally Posted by Ship741

We have 25 A330neo's coming beginning in April 2019. 767-300ERs are going to trickle out of the fleet slowly, a few more this year including the 1500s and unfortunately ships 182/3.

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Originally Posted by Planetrain

So what happens with Aeromexico and C-Series?

Originally Posted by Ship741

Disclaimer: Not a DL pilot, I just lurk here.

Originally Posted by forgot to bid

Interesting reading. Good stuff.

A lot have mentioned the CS500... but with Airbus running the show, why would there be a cs500?

Originally Posted by Mesabah

It would overlap the A319, the CS500 perhaps would boost sales of the 100/300 with commonality, as the A319 doesn't sell very well. If Airbus goes with a new wing to get into the A322 line, that won't downsize to the A319. So the 319 will likely be canceled in the next generation of A320s.