Riding the JS a few days ago, the captain (an LCA) was saying that he thinks the 717 will be phased out in the next 6 years due to leases expiring and fleet plans shifting. Any truth or plausible scenario where this is true?

I know DL doesn’t own them, but they usually operate an older fleet historically.

We flew with a Tech Ops manager riding the jumpseat that stated the current plan was to be done with the 717 in 2025 so that sounds right for now...

Shifting to C-series? Did AT own their 717s, or did they simply subleased them to Delta?

Southwest inherited them from AT and Delta got them on a screaming lease deal from SWA. Then I think Delta bought some more. I don’t know who actually owns them all of them.

Denny

We lease the majority of our 717s from AirTran/SWA via the merger between the two and their desire for a single fleet type.

These planes in 2025 are due to go back to Boeing. The biggest cost on them is the engine overhaul that takes place overseas (New Zeland comes to mind). The cost to add RNP to these is almost $2mil per plane as well. So they will consolidate to ATL over the coming years.

I think whether they’re gone or not depends on the A220 and our next PWA with respect to large RJ flying.

According to latest 10k filing, Delta owns 3, Finance Leases 16, and Operate Leases 72.

Could that be Delta has 72 on operating leases?

Yes...I Grammer not so gooder.

For those asking “what’s the difference?”:

Operating lease is treated generally like renting. That means, the lease payments are treated as operating expenses and the asset does not show on the balance sheet. A financial lease is treated like a loan. Here, the asset ownership is considered by the lessee and so asset appears on the balance sheet.

88 we're from SW/AirTran. The 3 owned came later from Blue1. Those 3 are parked.

I see us continuing upguaging to the 220-300 and replacing the entire fleet. As stated, bottom end scope must remain tight or we could see some block hours on the 717/221 get replaced by E175s/CR9s. We'll already have 50 76-seat RJ hulls flying with 70 seats, awaiting conversion.

When did they get parked? I just flew one a few weeks ago. They are the ones with the Autobrakes panel (deactivated of course).