Originally Posted by
sailingfun
There are no current plans to retire 717’s. Replacement airframes for the MD88/90 are the 737-900 and A321. The A220 is planned mostly to replace larger RJ flying and some nitch long haul flying. The larger RJ’s freed up will trickle down allowing Delta to park 50 seaters.
Delta will owe a very small penalty if they average over 1000 miles per leg.
I doubt Delta will have to pay anything at all. As soon as Airbus takes full control, and with the new NAFTA agreement, there is really no penalty unless Airbus decided to enforce it on Delta, which seems unlikely. I would still wager the A220 is a growth aircraft, not an RJ replacement.