Delta orders 50 Airbus widebodies

The champagne glasses in Toulouse, Hamburg and other places with Airbus-plants can be filled. Delta Air Lines has placed a firm order for 50 new Airbus widebody aircraft: 25 A350-900 XWB and 25 A330-900neo aircraft.

The A330neo jets will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines and the Trent XWB will power the A350 XWBs.


"When the most successful U.S. airline today – a company that has flown passengers around the world for more than 80 years, has 80-thousand employees and 165 million customers in a year – says ‘yes we want 50 more of your widebody planes’, you can’t debate the fact that it is a massive endorsement of your product line," said John Leahy, Airbus’ Chief Operating Officer – Customers.

The A330neo's are primarily intended for use on Delta's transatlantic services. The A350s are to be used on trans-Pacific routes, now flown by Boeing 747s. Delta is building a new hub at Seattle Tacoma Airport to serve destinations in Asia from here instead of via Tokyo Narita. Delta wants to do that with smaller aircraft.

Delta currently flies both Airbus single-aisle and widebody aircraft, including 57 A319ceo and 69 A320ceo aircraft, plus 11 A330-200s and 21 A330-300s. In addition to the order announced today, Delta has an order backlog of 10 A330-300s and 45 A321ceo aircraft, bringing its total Airbus backlog to 105 aircraft.

At the end of October 2014, the A350 XWB had won 750 orders from 39 customers worldwide. The A330 Family has now attracted more than 1,300 orders. Over 1,100 A330 Family aircraft are flying with more than 100 operators worldwide.

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