Originally Posted by Timbo

About 3 months before we filed for bankruptcy, I had the then CEO on board going ATL-AMS. Jerry came up to the cockpit prior to pushback to say Hi. So we started in on him, asking all kinds of questions. One of them had to do with our future fleet. He said in the long run, Delta only wants 2 fleet types, 1 for Domestic, one for International.

At the time, the 787 was the new jet everyone was talking about. He said that if Boeing would build a similar, smaller, carbon airplane to replace the 737, with the same cockpit, then Delta would buy the 787 for our International fleet, and the 797 (the carbon replacement for the 737) for our entire domestic fleet.

Imagine the cost savings if the entire fleet was a single type rating, and they shared most of their parts, and nobody ever had to dead head cross country to get to the only jet they are qualified on.

Want to know why SW is so efficient?

It's because they DON'T operate one of everything ever built, like we do.

All their pilots are qualified on all of their airplanes.

All their mechanics can fix all their airplanes, and all the parts fit all their airplanes.