Originally Posted by
sailingfun
People directly involved in the process say the 787 was the front runner. Delta needed the range of the 787-900 over the 787-800 or A350. Boeing knew our plans for the Shanghai hub and the range requirements and felt they were in the drivers seat. They did offer to supply 777-300ER's initially until the 787-900's started arriving. We asked that they build us 777-200LR's instead. They refused stating they were going to stop all -200 production on the 777.
In the end the reasons for why we made the choices we made are mute with the failure to achieve a Shanghai hub and that is the direct reason they are rethinking the widebody plan and have shifted focus to Korea.
Pardon my ignorance, but do we really need a 9000NM airplane to fly to PVG? The 200LR is a niche airplane; isn't that why we only have 10 of them? The 777-300ER is a very capable airframe in terms of payload and range. It seems that or even the A350-1000 would have made for a better true replacement for our whales. But I guess thats all a pipe dream with the changing situation in Asia for us.