Originally Posted by
Mountain Explorer
I know we're excited for the new routes to start, but DL is intentionally moving slowly on expansion, as they always do.
They aren't struggling to get widebodies, they intentionally back-loaded the 35K order. Yes, the first few frames are likely delayed from Q4 this year to Q1 next year, but that's minor. The majority of the order was only scheduled to arrive in 2028+ anyway, and that hasn't changed. And they are clearly moving even more slowly with the 787
Sure, new routes would be fun, but even more important, I would think, would be retiring 763s that no one wants to fly on and burn a lot of gas. I think you are assuming that these backloaded/late orders are by design (rather than by necessity because the available manufacturing slots are really that far out). Maybe someone can look at the CapEx/year with this new order and see if it is flat or if it has a dip due to all the delays.