Delta Air Lines fleet

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As of September 28, 2018, the Delta Air Lines mainline fleet includes 882 aircraft in service, making it one of the largest airline fleets in the world. Before merging with Northwest Airlines in 2009, Delta Air Lines operated an all-Boeing and McDonnell Douglas fleet; it incorporated Northwest's Airbus aircraft into its fleet following the merger and subsequently ordered further Airbus types. Delta is known for its policy of generally buying older generation or used aircraft and for continuing to fly aircraft for 20-30 years, much longer than most other major airlines. As such, it has one of the oldest fleets of any American airline, with an average fleet age of 16.7 years as of 31 December 2017. Fellow U.S. legacy carriers American Airlines and United Airlines have younger fleets; as of December 29, 2016, American had an average fleet age of 10.3 years, while United had an average fleet age of 14.1 years.

Video Delta Air Lines fleet

Fleet overview

As of September 28, 2018, Delta's fleet consists of 882 Airbus, Boeing, and McDonnell Douglas aircraft. Delta's 505 Boeing aircraft make up about 57% of its fleet, while its 235 Airbus aircraft makes about 26% and 142 McDonnell Douglas aircraft makes up about 17%. Delta's 732 narrow-body aircraft comprise about 83% of its fleet, while its 150 wide-body aircraft comprise the remaining 17%.

Delta operates the largest fleets of the Boeing 717, the Boeing 757, the Boeing 767, the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, and the McDonnell Douglas MD-90 worldwide. It is one of only two airlines worldwide operating the Boeing 767-400ER (the other being United Airlines), and the only airline still operating the MD-90 in the world.

Delta has one of the oldest fleets of any American airline, with an average fleet age of 14.3 years as of 2018. Its oldest aircraft types are the MD-88, MD-90, Boeing 757-200, Boeing 767-300, Boeing 767-300ER, and Airbus A320-200, which have an average age of 28.1, 21.7, 21.9, 25.3, 22.5, and 23.1 years, respectively. Its youngest aircraft types are the A321-200, A350-900 and Boeing 737-900ER, which have an average age of 1.0, 0.8 and 2.7 years, respectively. While Delta is sometimes thought to always purchase older generation or used aircraft, this is not always the case, as evidenced by its order of 25 A350s and 25 A330neo aircraft in November 2014 and its order of 75 Bombardier CS100 aircraft in April 2016. In addition, Delta ordered 100 A321neo aircraft to replace its aging 757s and MD-90s. These new A321neo aircraft are expected to be delivered starting in 2020, and will continue deliveries through 2023.

Delta primarily uses its narrow-body aircraft for domestic flights within the United States and for international flights from the United States to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Most of its McDonnell Douglas MD-88 and Boeing 717 aircraft are based out of Atlanta, where they are mainly used for short-haul flights. Its A320 aircraft, Boeing 737, and Boeing 757 aircraft are used for short-haul flights and medium-haul transcontinental flights. A few of its Boeing 757-200 aircraft are used on long and thin flights to Europe. Delta primarily uses its wide-body aircraft for long-haul flights to Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and South America, though some Boeing 767-300 (non-ER) aircraft operate domestic flights within the United States. Its A330s, Boeing 767-300ERs, and Boeing 767-400ERs mainly operate flights to Europe. Its Airbus A350-900s and Boeing 777-200s mainly operate flights to Asia.

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Recent developments

From the merger with Northwest Airlines in 2008 until April 5, 2016, Delta added more than 200 aircraft to its fleet, including A320s, A330-300s, Boeing 737-900ERs, Boeing 757-200s, and McDonnell Douglas MD-90s. The majority of these aircraft were delivered between 2013 and 2016 at a pace of about five aircraft a month. During this period Delta also refurbished all mainline aircraft and all two-class regional jets with Economy Comfort seats, with international aircraft receiving Economy Comfort seats in 2011 and domestic aircraft receiving Economy Comfort seats in 2012. On August 25, 2011, Delta ordered 100 Boeing 737-900ER aircraft for delivery between 2013 and 2018 as it retires older mainline jets and upgrades its fleet. The new aircraft are intended to improve the company's profitability.

In 2010 Delta had deferred the Boeing 787-8 deliveries until at least 2020 in an attempt to reduce capital spending. When Delta ordered 100 Boeing 737-900ERs in 2011, it negotiated the right to substitute them for the Boeing 787-8 orders on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Also, since Delta has ordered 60 Airbus wide body-aircraft since 2013, it has no need for additional wide-body aircraft in the next few years, especially given the current overcapacity on international routes as of 2017. On December 27, 2016, Delta cancelled the order for 18 Boeing 787-8 aircraft placed in 2005 by Northwest Airlines prior to their merger. As a result of this, Delta is the only major North American airline (with widebody aircraft) that does not fly the Boeing 787.

Fleet expansion with used aircraft

Between 2009 and 2013, Delta purchased and refurbished 49 used MD-90s, bringing its MD-90 fleet to 65 aircraft. Delta opted to buy used MD-90s rather than brand-new Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft because the MD-90s were cheaper in terms of the total cost of ownership, which takes capital expenses and operating expenses into account. In early 2011, Delta began to discuss replacement plans for the DC-9, older A320, and 757-200 aircraft with manufacturers Airbus, Boeing, and Bombardier.

On May 22, 2012, Delta agreed to sublease 88 AirTran Boeing 717 aircraft from Southwest Airlines. These used aircraft were primarily intended to replace inefficient 50-seat regional jets flown by Delta Connection and some older DC-9s. The Boeing 717s were scheduled to enter service over a three-year period: 16 in 2013, an additional 36 in 2014, and the remaining 36 in 2015. Delta bought three additional 717s from Finnish airline Blue1 in 2015, bringing its total to 91 aircraft. Delta Air Lines officially retired its DC-9s from mainline service on January 6, 2014; however, two DC-9s continued to be used on an as-needed basis until January 22 because of delayed Boeing 717 deliveries. Delta currently operates the last production model of the MD-90-30 (Registration N965DN).

Airbus orders

On September 4, 2013, Delta ordered 10 Airbus A330-300s and 30 A321s, with the A330s to be delivered between 2015 and 2017 and the A321s to be delivered between 2016 and 2017. With this order Delta became the launch customer for the enhanced 242-ton maximum takeoff weight A330-300, which is slightly more fuel-efficient and thus has greater payload capacity and range. On June 2, 2014, Delta ordered an additional 15 A321 aircraft to be delivered starting in 2018, bringing its A321 order total to 45 aircraft.On April 29, 2016, Delta announced an order for 37 additional A321s to be delivered through 2019, bringing its A321 order total to 82 aircraft. On May 11, 2017, Delta announced an order for 30 additional A321 aircraft to bring its total to 112. On June 20, 2017, Delta announced an order for 10 additional A321 aircraft to bring its total to 122.

On November 20, 2014, Delta ordered 50 Airbus wide-body jets to replace its aging Boeing 747-400s and 767-300ERs. 25 A350-900 aircraft will be delivered beginning in 2017 and will replace Delta's Boeing 747-400s on routes to Asia. 25 Airbus A330-900neo aircraft will be delivered beginning in 2019 and will replace 767-300ERs on routes to Europe and on certain routes between the West Coast and Asia.

On December 14, 2017, Delta announced a 100 firm and 100 option order for the Airbus A321neo aircraft with deliveries beginning in 2020 and continuing through 2023. The aircraft will be powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1100G geared-turbofan engines, and will seat 197 passengers. The aircraft will replace ageing Airbus A320s, Boeing 757-200s and MD-90s.

Additional narrow-body orders

On June 10, 2015, Delta announced it would acquire 20 used Embraer 190s and order 40 new Boeing 737-900ERs upon pilot ratification of a tentative labor agreement. However, on July 15, 2015, Delta cancelled the orders after pilots rejected the tentative contract proposal. Then, on December 16, 2015, Delta re-announced the order for 20 used Embraer 190s and 20 new Boeing 737-900ERs, bringing its 737-900ER order total to 120 aircraft. On April 12, 2017, Delta disclosed in its quarterly financial filing that it had ordered an additional 10 737-900ERs from Boeing in the first quarter of 2017, bringing its order total to 130 aircraft.

On April 28, 2016, Delta announced an order for 75 Bombardier CS100s (now known as Airbus A220-100), options for 50 additional C Series aircraft and the ability to substitute to the larger CS300 aircraft. C Series deliveries will begin in 2018. It was also announced that the 20 Embraer 190s would not join the fleet.

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Current fleet

The following table represents Delta Air Lines mainline fleet types and layouts in service as of September 28, 2018.

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Fleet timeline

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Historical Delta Air Lines fleet

Delta Air Lines had an all-Boeing (including McDonnell Douglas aircraft) fleet until its merger with Northwest Airlines.

Retired fleet

*Delta operated the DC-10 twice, once on lease from United before the L-1011s could be delivered, and again when Delta acquired Western Airlines in 1987.

**Delta experimented with Airbus A310 aircraft for two to three years after acquiring the planes from Pan Am. Initially Delta was impressed enough with the aircraft to order more of the same model, but these were eventually withdrawn from service by the mid 1990s.

***Delta originally had DC-9-30s from 1967 to 1993. Delta sold some of their DC-9-30s back to McDonnell Douglas who sold them to ValuJet, forming ValuJet's initial fleet. ValuJet would eventually become Delta's main Atlanta-based rival, AirTran Airways. However, Delta inherited a fleet of -30s in 2008 when they had merged with Northwest Airlines. Two of these, N3322L and N3324L, had been delivered to Delta in 1967.