Like LK and JS said in the last Houston 'DO, yes the 762 will be the first to go if they want them to go, like in an economic downturn or whatnot. But I think they can still be useful for developing new thin routes.

I think with this extra order and conversion, they put huge pressure on DL on the longhauls. The 787-9 can do Indian routes much cheaper than the 772ER/LRs (for both cost of plane and operation), and will be vastly more efficient than DL's aging 763 on European routes.

And I think we shouldn't rule out a possible return to the Australian market. The operation economics is very different between the 787-9 and the DC-10.