FangsF15

Agreed. Filler.

Timbo

The 787 irony is that North West was the 787 US Launch Customer! They already had a 787 sim and were training LCAs in it. Richard Anderson was the then NW CEO, before he came to Delta and said, "I am not here to facilitate a merger with NW.".

Um...right....sure you're not.

But Boeing f'd the 787 production up so badly by outsourcing the construction around the world to bust their unions, the 787 delivery schedule was delayed by 3 years! Remember all the battery fire issues?

After the NW/Delta merger we were still waiting on the 20 787s we (through NW) had on order, and we were talking to Boeing about 25 more 777s.

And remember the food fight Richard got into with the ME3 and the prices and financing deals they were getting through the Export/Import bank on 777s and 787s?

Well someone inside Richard's inner circle leaked the price of our 25 777 order to Airbus, and presto bingo, Airbus offers Delta (Ed and Richard) 25 A350s AND 25 A330-900s for the same price as the 25 777s.

50 Airbus wide bodies for the price of 25 777s. Well you know Ed's an account, not an ops guy. Even though the 777 fleet Capt told Ed the A350 wouldn't do what the 777s would do, range and payload wise, all Ed could see was 50 WB for the price of 25! Ed had no idea of the cost of introducing an entirely new fleet re. New Sims, new instructors, IOE for everyone, GS out the wazzo for all the senior A350 guys , etc.

Ed blamed the VP of Flt Ops for this expense! That's when SD left to "spend more time with his family"....at the FAA!

So once again, after blowing $4 Billion on bad fuel hedges, Ed decided to buy Airbus and blows millions on start up costs, on an airplane that won't do the mission, when if he'd have stuck wit the 777 he'd have no start up costs as we already had 2 sims and lots of instructors on it.

But that 3 year 787 delay is what really killed future Boeing WB orders for Delta. I'm amazed we're still buying 737s from them!

Khantahr

We're probably only buying 73s because Airbus can't build NEOs (or 220s) fast enough.

tcco94

We are getting more 220’s as stated a couple pages back. But yeah you can’t have 1 domestic fleet type for an airline this size. Same reason United’s only airbus fleet is the 320/321.

waldo135

United is currently taking delivery of A-321NEOs.

MrMustache

Did you even read what you wrote? If actually true, who the hell wouldn't take the Airbus deal? Ya so the 777 and 747 were cool but that's a hell of a deal. Personally I'd rather fly an Airbus wide body than a Boeing.

Planetrain

Are these options for A35K or A359? Or either?

Timbo

I didn't read it, I lived it!

Jonny Drama

Exactly! So they cost money to stand up…. How much will we save operating them over the next 3 decades??Much smarter to order efficient 350s in the mid 20teems than double down on a 20-25 year old design.

Timbo

And the 20-25yr old design will do the mission, (JNB, CPT-ATL and SYD-LAX, full!) and the Airbus won't.

Of course it saves fuel, it's got much smaller engines and hauls less cargo, less far!