Originally Posted by Longboater

With the exception of the A330 NEO order. When Airbus launched the A330 NEO it was a given Delta was going to order to plane to partially replace the 58 767s. Delta pushed Airbus to launch such a plane as Boeing did not have a new plane that was close to what Delta was looking for in such a plane. (As previously discussed, the 787-8 was not the plane due to having too much range for Trans-Atlantic/Deep South America flying.) Now, should Boeing launch a new middle of the market aircraft, in part it will be due to lobbying by Delta and also by United and American. If such an aircraft is launched, it will likely replace the remaining 767s, the 18 75S, and down the road, the 757-300.

Again, ideally, Delta would have likely preferred the 787-9 due to its size and fit for ATL/DTW-Asia and SEA/LAX-Asia on flights longer than 13 hours, while the A330 NEO, incidentally is pretty much the exact same size as the 787-9, would handle flights less than 13 hours. But due to the lateness of Delta's RFP and the cancellation of the EK A350 order, the A350 order was inevitable.