You did read the part where he said passenger widebody fleet right. So that would bring your total down to 53.

What is the real relevance of this post? While it might be true, what are the delivery dates? For many of us... you included... orders that trickle in at one or two a year for the next 10 years is pretty meaningless.

I guess what I am getting at is that you try to sell 'orders' as this amazing thing, when 1) the rate of their arrival is very unimpressive, and 2) orders don't mean **** until they are delivered and painted with a widget on the tail.

And how many 767's are going during this timeframe?

I suspect the first disappointment will be when they start adding hourly JFK-LHR on 73s/321s/7ERs, call it growth, and let JVs take JFK to anywhere farther on their WBs. We might move more pax, but the distance will be shorter and we won’t need any new WBs.

It was only 16 744 and 32 A330, so the passenger number is 48. Delta took delivery of 10 777-200LR during the merger years. After that we retired the 744s and added 10 A330 and 11 A350. There are 4 A350 and 35 A330-900 orders for delivery in the next few years. There are 10 more A350 orders deferred to 2025/26, so technically our undelivered order total is 49.

If you want to count NWA Cargo, the 2008 10K only listed 13 747Fs operating at the end of 2008.

From the numbers I'm looking at, we've gone from 80 767-300/ER in 2008 to 58 currently, so -22. At least 2 767s are planned to retire next year, but the bulk are supposed to remain active for several more years.

First I said passenger aircraft. The freighter fleet however I think was at 15 airframes when we merged. The 747-400 fleet I believe was 16 and the A330 fleet I know was at 32.
16+32=48 passenger aircraft.
We have 49 widebodies on order.

Edit, confirmed 16 747-400 and 15 freighters however 3 were parked.

Slots are way to valuable at LHR to pull a widebody for a narrow body. It’s also considered a very high value market and was the first to get lie flat business.

Sure, you’re right about all those things. I posit there is still a way the company can “grow” into Europe that will be thoroughly unsatisfying for the pilot group. I lack sufficient evil genius (incompetence) to know what that will be.

The mega JV they are currently working on is the form in Europe. Delta, AirFrance, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic will all fly the widget some day. It's the Mc Donalds/Coca-cola model. Corporate plus franchisees with some equity mix to tie it all together. Can you tell which sets of golden arches is owned by Mc Donalds and which are not? How about the coke can bottled in Georgia versus the one in California or Denmark or China or Mexico. Now you know why we will never carry Pepsi. The red and white Coca-Cola logo is recognized by 94% of the world’s population.

Coke threw alot of money Delta's way when they were struggling. Plus they had interlocking directorates. Google J.A. Biedenharn.