Originally Posted by
WHBM
Delta bought the 21-strong almost-new A310 fleet from the last remnants of Pan Am in 1991, which only lasted for a couple of years before being disposed. Strangely, they then bought 9 more brand-new A310s from Airbus as partial replacements, and then a couple of years later sold those as well.
I recall flying on a DL A310, from JFK to LAX in 1992. The plane originally departed from FRA, so the JFK to LAX segment was the continuation of the flight number and same aircraft. There were a few bi-lingual announcements made in German and English onboard. The FAs were all DL FAs and not former PA FAs. The seats in Y still had ash trays, as many seats did back then, with some arabic writing on them, giving you clues as to where the plane was in service before.
Originally Posted by
WHBM
The moving on of the Delta DC10s to United was lined up from the beginning, and the five aircraft were ordered from McDD by United and leased to Delta, presumably with some if/when we decide clause that allowed Delta to determine how they would be handed back, if ever, as the order was placed at the height of the Tristar/Rolls-Royce development crisis. They actually stayed in service for quite some time after the Tristars began to finally show up.
Don't forget that DL had a second wave of DC-10s after their L-1011s went into service. DL bought Western Airlines (WA) around 1987, inheriting their former aircraft. Shortly after the merger, I flew on DL from HNL to LAX. The plane was a DC-10 still in WA livery, where none of the markings had changed. Flight crews were all DL.