Today I’ll be taking a closer look at the fleet of one of the big three American carriers. In this post we’ll take a deep dive into what the Delta Air Lines fleet looks like and how it’s composed in early 2023.
The Peculiarity of Delta Air Lines’ Fleet
When we compare the Delta fleet to those of American Airlines and United one thing sticks out immediately. Delta has the largest fleet of Airbus produced planes. Something that the airline inherited from the merger that moulded the Delta Air Lines we all know today.
The younger readers might not know this but Delta merged in the early 2000s with struggling airline Northwest Airlines. Northwest had gone into financial difficulties in the wake of September 11th. Northwest operated most of its European routes with its Airbus A330s. Also the airline used to have significant number of A320s and A319s in its fleet, used to operate flights domestically.
Therefore once the merger was completed Delta incorporated into its own fleet these Airbus planes. From there onwards the the airline has continued to have a strong percentage of European manufactured aircraft in its fleet.
To simplify the the Delta fleet analysis we’ll split it into two. We’ll look at the Boeing portion of the fleet and then the Airbus one.
The DL Boeing Fleet
Delta operates 4 Boeing aircraft types. However only one of the four is a wide body, double aisle, aircraft. Nonetheless the airline operates 2 of the four on medium and long haul flights. Specifically the Delta Boeing fleet features:
211 Boeing 737
- 77 Boeing 737-800
- 134 Boeing 737-900
118 Boeing 757
- 102 Boeing 757-200
- 66 Boeing 757-300
66 Boeing 767
- 45 Boeing 767-300
- 21 Boeing 767-400
65 Boeing 717
- 65 Boeing 717-200
The Boeing 717 isn’t an entirely Boeing designed plane, as is the case with one of the Airbus aircraft. The 717, was originally designed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95. After the Boeing takeover of the firm the plane was renamed the 717.
The 757s and 767s are both used also on medium and long haul flights and are often seen crossing the Atlantic on Europe bound services.
Delta’s Airbus Fleet
The Airbus portion of the fleet has a heavy presence of smaller single aisle planes used mainly on domestic routes. However there are also a significant number of long range Airbus planes present in the Delta fleet in early 2023. Specifically here’s how Delta’s Airbus fleet looks like in 2023:
56 Airbus A319
- 56 Airbus A319-100
61 Airbus A320
- 61 Airbus A320-200
149 Airbus A321
- 22 Airbus A321neo
- 127 Airbus A321-200
62 Airbus A330
- 11 Airbus A330-200
- 31 Airbus A330-300
- 20 Airbus A330-900
24 Airbus A350
- 24 Airbus A350-900
59 Airbus A220
- 45 Airbus A220-100
- 14 Airbus A220-300
Just as we saw for the Boeing 717 the same goes for the A220. The plane isn’t an original Airbus design and project. Originally the A220 was the Bombardier CS100 and CS300 project, then bought by the European manufacturer.
Also we can see Delta onboarding more and more new generation planes such as the A321neo, the A330-900 and the A350.
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