The return of my fleet of series, that's been missing on the series for almost a year after
beginning it back in early 2018, lots have changed within the Industry so I’ll be going
back through the various carriers and taking a look at just how their fleet has changed.
Today begins with the big Delta which has been known for its rather expansive fleet
portfolio which has been far from streamlined in the past and is so big it is in the top
3 carriers in the world for fleet size.
Starting at Airbus with the A220 series, this has featured prominently here on the channel
following various deliveries.
The A220 has featured with the carrier for some time now, in the form of the A220-100,
and only recently was the first A220-300 delivered to the carrier which was built at the Alabama
facility.
Part of Airbus’ grand plan at capturing the US market with a regional aircraft like
that of the A220 that can be used on operations throughout the country.
The inaugural flight with the -300 only took place recently but it will play a crucial
role within their operations moving forward.
The carrier recently extended their order book by 15 aircraft in the A220 series through
to 90.
Featuring 40 of the A220-100s and finally 50 of the A220-300s, the longer variant within
the series.
Staying with the smaller Airbus aircraft within their fleet but moving to the more classic
A320 family of aircraft.
Delta has the A319, A320, and also Airbus A321 that features within their fleet.
The carrier is still welcoming on the Airbus A321s, however, there the looming presence
of the Airbus A321neo, of which they currently have 100 on order at this moment.
Moving across to the A330 the carrier has both the A330-200 and A330-300 flying with
the -300 being the more prominent within the airline, the carrier has a total of over 30
currently flying while having just over 10 of the A330-200s.
The Airbus A350s also feature and now almost act as the flagship within Deltas operations.
When moving across to Boeing the airline flies the 717s, 737s, 757s, and 767s, however, for
the majority of these aircraft the average age is very high.
In fact, similar to the A320 series the Boeing 757s average age sits at some 23 years and
the same goes for the Boeing 767s average age which also sits at a whopping 23 years
as well.
The two aircraft types between them account for roughly 200 of the 800+ aircraft within
Delta’s operations.
This was higher prior to the recent retirement and rapid retirement might I add of the Delta
Boeing 777s.
Moving back briefly to the 737s it has over 200 also in the fleet with them averaging
an age of 10 years, the 737s and A320s are truly the backbone of its operations within
the United States.
As for retirements, the carrier has been very vocal about what types it’ll be saying goodbye
to in the coming years.
It plans on retiring the Boeing 717s by 2025 and in addition the 767-300s also by 2025.
This would mean though the final type is gone in this year, continuously from now till then
Delta will progressively say goodbye to planes within the fleet until there are no more and
ultimately the carrier will emerge in this coming decade once again as Delta but a more
streamlined version if you will.
While not operated by Delta directly, Delta Connection which flies a total of 100 CRJ-200s
will also be saying goodbye to the type which averages an age of actually a whopping 18
years.
The retirement of these jets is scheduled to take place earlier than the 767 and 717
with the final CRJ departing the Delta Connection fleet sometime in 2023.
That’s the fleet at Delta, if you want to see me do more airlines for this given the
current situation do not hesitate to let me know and as always thank you so much for the
continued support it is greatly appreciated.
Please do stay safe and take care!