TurbineDriver

Any rumors of us ditching the 777? Seems like a likely possibility considering we only have 18 and our widebody flying is in the crapper.

Along the same lines, can the A350 fly ATL-JNB? How about LAX-SYD?

Just seems odd to have such a small fleet if the 350 can pretty much do the same thing. Wonder if mgt is thinking this too? I noticed we acquired 10 additional LATAM 350s so I assumed this was managements plan. Discuss.

weekendflyer

No idea but they just spent a lot of money updating the interiors

FL370esq

The A350 cannot do ATL-JNB nor LAX-SYD (with current alternate requirements). Probably won't need to in a post-COVID world though. 😞

DriveC208

Pre COVID I was certain the triples wouldn’t be here much longer. Now that management has been exploring cargo to make up some of the lost revenue, I wonder if they’ll keep them around for that if nothing else.

sailingfun

When the belly freight returns post Corona there will be a big glut of cargo capacity. It’s not likely you will see passenger airlines get into dedicated cargo ops. Freight is booming now because of the massive loss of capacity.

Stan446

No matter if there is a glut, Without international travel, no one is going to just fly a 777 just for belly freight. FedEx, UPS, ATLAS and the other carriers will cover it.

Speed Select

Thoughts on DL dropping the 777 fleet completely and paying a bunch of 62+ yo captains to stay home for a few years, thereby significantly reducing the subsequent “7-event” training churn?

Is it worth keeping a fleet of 18 airplanes that are really only needed to serve 2 cities?

UA and AA have slashed their summer international schedules. Will international demand return for summer 2021 without a vaccine? Probably not, especially if the predicted fall CV rerun happens. DL can “risk” shedding the 767 and 777 fleets, rely on the 330s and 350s to meet demand for the next 2 years, and find great deals on cancelled 330 and 350 orders to meet 2022 demand.

DL may fly cargo with the 777s, but only until they return or sell them (I’m not sure if we lease or own the 777s). They can just as easily carry cargo in all the other empty 330s and 350s. I doubt we’re going to see DeltaCargo jets again.

Pretty radical, but I’m in the camp that believes Delta is going to use the CV crisis to transform the airline, not just shrink it. Even more so with federal government backing (too big to fail, Trump loves airlines... he even owned one).

I also think we’ll see AA, DL, and UA all handle this recovery very differently.

Gone Flying

I think the 77L is also needed to serve JFK-BOM if that route will continue. I wonder if airbus is working on improving the A350-900ULR to give it the weights of a A350-1000 like the 77L was for the 77W. that would fix all these problems and I cant imagine it would be too hard for airbus.

I personally think the 765 is a much lower hanging fruit because they are all pre 9/11 ish and can be directly replaced by an a330-800 or -900 once demand returns depending on what DL wants. 777 DL would have to abandon 3 markets, every 765 route could be flown by an a330.

overqualified52

Maybe they will just run the 777’s on the DTW To Traverse City Runs . Who the hell knows . Nothing surprises any more .. but seriously, you are right on with your points .

Speed Select

I think they’re willing to do that while waiting for a 350 that can do the job, especially since our airplanes will be pretty empty for quite a while and little to no high fare demand.

BOM has already been cancelled, and there’s a second SYD flight every night that’s code shared/operated by a Virgin Australia 777.

We really only need the airplane for JNB.