Originally Posted by iaflyer

My suspicion is that we are parking them and something is going to replace them.

A) Delta hasn't said (and nothing has appeared) in the press about parking them. That's 1/4 of the 747 fleet. If we are focusing on capacity and yields you would think that it would come out pretty quick, and boost the stock price

B) We are still hiring a bunch - no word that we are going to hire less because of parking some planes that were not supposed to be parked so early.

C) Because of A, I think we'll see a Press Release with an order for new airplanes announced coinciding with parking the 747 fleet, "the first of which are being retired this Fall"

I think it's some sort of 777 to replace the 747. But not new because it basically takes 18-24 months from ordering to delivery of new Boeing airplanes for us. If we are starting a draw down now, that's too far away to lose all that capacity. We need a long range plane with lots of seats for some of our markets.

It may be part of another order that are 767 replacements too. The 350 is too new, Richard doesn't like new planes, unproven and all that. A330neo is my bet for the 767 replacement.