Delta A350-1000 order

[mtrainer90]

Earlier this morning, Friday January 12^th 2024, Delta air lines announced before their Q4 earnings conference the purchase of 20 Airbus A350-1000s. These aircraft are set to have deliveries begin in 2026. In addition to the 20 new A350-1000, the airline also has the purchase options for an additional 20 widebody aircraft. Delta now joins its Skyteam partner Virgin Atlantic who currently operates the -1000 as well as the Air France KLM group who announced an order for the -1000 as well as more -900s earlier this year.
Due to its larger center fuel tank, the A350-1000 can hold about 30,000 pounds more fuel than the A350-900, giving the -1000 a range of 8,700 nautical miles. This increases the range over the -900 by 400nm on the PIPs equipped A350s and 700nm over the original non PIPs A350s in Deltas fleet. The increased fuel, range and 14ton greater payload will become very helpful on some of Delta’s longhaul flights.
In 2020, amidst the Covid pandemic, Delta retired its smaller fleet of 18 777-200ER & LR aircraft. The airline was taking a fleet simplization approach and also cited the A350’s 21% less fuel burn per seat. After the resumption of most of the international flying exiting the pandemic, the A350 has struggled on the Atlanta-Joburg route due to the range, making this a payload optimized flight.
Although not currently operating the larger A350-1000 model, Delta is no stranger to the A350 with 28 A350-900s currently in its fleet and 16 more still on order. The airline became the American launch customer in 2017 when they phased out their Boeing 747 fleet in favor of the brand new Airbus A350-900. Delta’s inaugural A350 flight took place in late October 2017 from Detroit, Michigan to Narita, Japan while the final 747 revenue flight arrived at Detroit on December 19^th 2017 from Incheon, South Korea.
Besides the new orders Delta had for the A350, in July 2021, Delta announced the acquisition of 9 used Ex-Latam A350-900s they would pull from long term storage in Victorville. These aircraft would require extensive conversion time before flying for Delta due to the modifications required to the aircraft and wiring to switch out the Lithium-Ion batteries the FAA will not allow US carriers to operate with.
Another aspect of the Airbus A350 Delta is no stranger to is its Rolls Royce Trent XWB turbo fan engines. With its large facility at the companies headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Delta TechOps MRO is The only North American repair organization licensed to overhaul the engine. In 2019 Delta TechOps opened its brand new state of the art engine test cell which is now one of the largest in the world. The new facility is capable of handling the Trent XWB engine as well as all of the smaller engines the MRO is contracted to repair and overhaul.
Delta currently operates 2 different cabin configurations on its A350-900. The first, which is used on the legacy Delta Aircraft, features 306 seats in a 4 class cabin. It is laid out with 32 Delta one suites, 48 premium select seats, 36 comfort plus seats (which were not originally installed on the first 13 A350s) and 190 main cabin seats. The Ex-Latam A350-900s, known as the 35L, feature a much more controversial cabin holding 339 passengers without delta one suites. This configuration is broken down into 30 lay flat seats, 63 comfort plus seats and 246 main cabin seats.
On top of the 2 current cabin configurations, Delta’s booking site shows a new 3^rd config on its ATL-JNB flights. This new configuration, rumored to be called “35H”, reduces the total number of seats to 275. The newest cabin will feature 40 Delta one suites, 40 premium select, 36 Comfort plus and 159 main cabin seats. With the 35H and the not yet revealed 35K configurations, Delta will have a total of 4 different A350 cabins until the Ex-Latam 35Ls are converted.

[TRTPUwU]

Well, we will have to wait to photograph them...