14 January 2011

Delta FlipFlops On Narrow Bodies. Fuel The Driver?


A year ago Richard Anderson was touting how much he loved his aging MD80/90 Twinjets. In the year fuel prices rose 20+%.

Today there is a lot of talk of the Delta 200 plane narrow body order with 3 players in contention:

The A320 NEO, the Boeing 737NG+ and the Bombardier C series

All of them are viable with the nudge to Airbus because of existing commonality in the fleet. The downside of the 737NG+ is that it doesn't deliver the value in terms of efficiency despite fleet commonality. The C Series of course could be a game changer with the lower cost and the higher operating value with its significantly lower cost.

Which one will he choose?

Well interestingly this will have a major impact on all players. AA is half way through their MD80 replacement program but they also had older MD80s than DL.

And then there is Mr O'Leary on the sidelines with his reported 300 plane order.

Gosh these are exciting times

Cheers

1 comment:

Capt. Spud said...

We're still hanging on the about 30 DC-9-50's. Not fuel efficient, but they're paid for. Richard is a smart guy. I think he'll meet the balance that's right for big D.