Originally Posted by
Longboater
In hindsight, as of this moment it looks like Delta should have taken Boeing's deal of exercising the six options they have on the 77Ls, which would have deeply discounted and featured the same Performance Improvement Package United's 777-300ERs received, and converted the 18 787-8s into 787-9s, with deliveries commencing in 2020. The orders for 787-8s have all but dried up. The 787-9 has additional range and size with the same operating costs of the 787-8s. Its why Delta never seriously considered the 787-8 after the NW merger was complete. Are there a few routes that are ideal for the 787-8 in Delta's network, yes. DTW-NGO automatically comes to mind. SEA-KIX would likely still be in operation with the 787-8. The A330-200 wouldn't be stretched to the limit on SEA-HKG. You can scrutinise Delta all you want for picking the A350-900 as the 747 replacement but at the time it made complete sense as they planned on receiving 15 in 2017-2018, the same number they will likely end up receiving in total, albeit for now.
I think the 787-8 and 787-9 are a better size plane for Delta than the 339 and 359, but I also think Airbus offered the 339 at a lower cost than Boeing offered the 787, and the 339's have competitive operating costs for the kind of routes Delta will put them on. The 339 is awfully big to replace 763's, but Delta got them relatively cheaply from what I have read. I think the 10 359's deferred to 2023 will end up replacing the 777ER's, which will be around 23 years old then.