sailingfun

It looks like the rumorerd 787 order cancellations will occur soon. As far back as early 2007 NWA management had expressed doubts about the aircraft because of the weight and range issue. It can not fly several of the routes NWA purchased it for and has even greater issues out of ATL. The last lounge brief where this was discussed mentioned that the -9 is the aircraft they really want. The bad news is the loss of firm orders for the combined airline. The good news is that it looks like they will be replaced with 777 orders. It will be interesting to see what the mix of 787's if any and 777 orders ends up as. It will also be interesting to see how many 787-900 orders we place. Lets hope its a bunch!


Dec 1 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc, which bought Northwest
Airlines Corp in October, plans to seek significant changes
to aircraft orders both carriers had placed individually with
Boeing Co, The Wall Street Journal said.

Delta is likely to scale back a Northwest order for Boeing's
new, but delayed, 787 Dreamliner, and ask the manufacturer to
expand a Delta order for the 777-200LR aircraft, the
newspaper said, citing people familiar with Delta's plans.

The 777-200LR is a long-range aircraft that carries at least
50 more passengers and would better enable the combined
carrier to continue pursuing Delta's strategy to shift a
greater percentage of its flights to long overseas routes,
the paper said.

The two companies could not be immediately reached for
comment by Reuters.

No final decisions have been made regarding the new aircraft,
the WSJ told the paper, and Delta has yet to officially ask
Boeing to alter its order book.

A change in orders from Delta is unlikely to significantly
hurt Boeing as it has secured other customers for 787s, and
the manufacturer will be willing to expand its order book for
the more expensive 777-200LR, the paper said, citing people
familiar with the situation.

Delta declined to comment on specific order plans, the
Journal reported, but said the company believes the long-term
needs of a merged fleet would differ from those of each
airline individually.

NWA320pilot

The report may be correct or possibly economic leverage by DAL towards BA. Like all rumors in the airline industry time will tell...... Hopefully if any change to the order is made it is at least replaced with another wide bodied aircraft and not just cancelled!

finis72

It won't be the 777-200LR,it will be the 777-300ER and it will be the replacement for the 747-400. Any bets ?

sailingfun

Delta management has said all along that they did not favor the 787-800. Lounge briefs mentioned the 777 swap since the merger was announced. The last month however the rumor has been the first 6 787-800 would come on schedule and then a delay and the rest would be 900's. The first six 800's would be traded at a later date for 900's. This may turn out to be the plan with additional 777's added to the mix. Lets hope the net result is a gain in airframes!

NWA320pilot

I hope not! I just finished my type rating in the 744 and going back to school is not something I want to do in the next few years......

finis72

Ya'll will love Virginia Ave.,I don't think this is happening soon.maybe over a 5 year period.The 74's will be around for a while longer.Totally my opinion.

sailingfun

The 747-200 are going sooner rather then later. Looks like they will all be gone in 2 years. In the last LCA meeting they put out that the 400's would be gone within 5 years. Plans change so lets hope they stay a bit longer.

Check Essential

Anderson has said on several occasions that the 787-800s had big problems.
This just makes it official that he doesn't want them. Now the negotiations with Boeing will get serious about how much the replacement 777s will cost.
Boeing owes NWA some 787 "compensation" for late deliveries and performance below specs.
All 777s? Some 787-900s? Who knows? Its all about the Benjamins.

Xray678

We may never see a 787-800 on property. Delta may well sell them to someone else if they can't work a deal with Boeing to pass on those jets. As others have said, they really want the -900. I think you will see the -800s converted to a mix of 772LRs and 773ERs. Then the rest of the 787 options converted to the -900.

No reason to take a small number of -800s. The 330 and 7ER can fill that mission.

Nosmo King

Word from some of our head honcho pilots is that this absolutely cannot happen because the 777 delivery slots are full, full and full. No way to get any additional ones in the near future unless another customer sells you their slot.