Delta Shedding More Aircraft

Flew Delta on a 767 last year to and from Europe in Economy Comfort. Awful seats with no padding. Tray table had spring type clip so my foot hammock wouldn't work. Miserable flights. Happy to see them go.

Their 767s are some of the oldest in the fleet. Past time to be replaced in my opinion. I didn't even know they had any 717s. I thought Hawaiian had all of them. The CRJs are also pretty much at the end of their life span.

The dates are 3 to 5 years from now for the end of the retirement. Lots can happen in that time frame, including Delta choosing to keep the planes going for another few years if there is need. Maybe they will get a better price if they dump them sooner rather than later while they continue to receive the new planes they had ordered as travel increases again. They do have a lot of Airbus 220's on order, they are similarly sized to the 717 and allow for 1st class seating. I'm sure they will find whatever planes they need when travel picks up.

Delta is supposed to replace the seats on the B717s by the end of 2022 due to a FAA directive. There was a rumor this summer that the airline was going to return the B717s to Boeing (most of them are leased from Boeing) in exchange for fire-sale-priced MAXs to help rejuvenate the MAX program.

My local airport has 7 flights per day to ATL mostly on B717s with an occasional A320 or B737-900. It will be interesting to see what ultimately replaces them.

I prefer their A330s to/from Europe. Their 767-300/400s are old, less comfortable & have inferior technology compared with the A330s.