Originally Posted by
RobertS975
I was sitting by the Sky Club window in the LAX terminal 3 absorbing a two hour ATC delay for my BOS flight today. As I watched a literal parade of B787s pass by the window, I began increasingly longing for that aircraft to be in the Delta fleet. JAL, Norwegian, Hong Kong, UA, AA, VS, Air China and QF aircraft went by. I wonder how Delta would be different today if it had kept the NW order for 787s.
I think the NWA 787 order didn't fit into the Delta's aircraft fleet plan at the merger. The 787 is basically a B767 replacement with longer range. The lengthy 787 delay and young age of the Delta 767 made the 787 order a bit useless for Delta. Delta already had the B777-LR for really long range flights like LAX-SYD or ATL-JNB. A 787 might of helped other routes like you said, but the capital costs of a new airplane vs an already paid for 767 can make that a flight like SEA-HKG not profitable.
Originally Posted by
RobertS975
I also wonder what would have happened had the pilots union and Delta reached agreement about crew rest issues with the B777 so many years ago causing DL to cancel orders, leaving a relatively minor B777 fleet.
I'm not sure what you mean, the union and Delta sorted the issue out relatively quickly, and received 8 of the 13 (even after the company threatened to sell the ones they had). I would argue it was more of the global downturn in 2001 and 9/11 that killed the other 5. Delta then took delivery of 10 more of the existing 18 in the 2008-2010 timeframe.