Delta has quite a few widebody aircraft on order, including A350-900s and A330-900neos.
The airline started taking delivery of A350-900s over a year ago, and now has about half of the 25 planes that have been ordered in their fleet.
Meanwhile the airline also has 35 A330-900neos on order, which are intended to replace their aging fleet of Boeing 767-300ERs. Delta is the US launch customer for this aircraft type (TAP Air Portugal was the global launch customer), and their first A330-900neo is currently in the paint shop, and should be delivered to them this year.
Delta A330-900neo leaving the paint shop
Anyway, up until now we haven’t known exactly how the Delta A330-900neo would be configured. We’ve known that the airline was planning on installing their new Delta One Suites on the plane, which debuted on the A350-900.
Delta’s A350-900 business class
We’ve also known that the A330-900neo would be the first plane in their fleet to feature all four seat products, including Delta One Suites, Premium Select, Comfort+, and Main Cabin (interestingly Delta’s A350-900s and reconfigured 777-200LRs don’t feature Comfort+).
Yesterday I wrote about how US airlines filed with the DOT requesting permission to add flights to Haneda, and Delta’s nearly 200 page application had some interesting tidbits, including the first look at their A330-900neo seatmap (as far as I know).
So, what do we know? Delta plans to configure their A330-900neos with 281 seats, including:
- 29 Delta One seats
- 28 Premium Select seats
- 56 Comfort+ seats
- 168 Main Cabin seats
Overall this looks like it should be a really comfortable plane:
- That’s a good size Delta One cabin, though the seats will likely be a bit narrower than on the A350, given that the cabin isn’t as wide
- In general economy should be comfortable, since I love the A330’s 2-4-2 configuration
- It’s great for Medallion members that there’s Comfort+, since an extra legroom economy section is a nice option for those who don’t want to pay for premium economy or business class
What do you make of Delta’s A330-900neo configuration?
@Tom
The US3 are 3 of the largest airlines in the world by just about any metric so when one of them adds a new plane type, bloggers and journalists will write about it. Just like with the A220 (aka C-Series) which Delta is also introducing to the US. Lucky has written about Garudas J and F product before so I'm sure he'll review their new product when they take delivery of the A330-900neo
Will be interesting to see if they can launch the inaugural flight by the end of 2019. This will be a big improvement over the 767.
"Delta is the US launch customer for this aircraft type (TAP Air Portugal was the global launch customer)". TAP was also the Portuguese launch customer. Furthermore, when Garuda gets them they'll be the Indonesian launch customer. And so on....... Are you going to name each first airline of a country when getting a new aircraft type as the launch customer or is this, unsurprisingly, a USA only highlight?
An Airbus FAA exemption filing indicate they will be enclosed suites. This LOPA must be a placeholder as they still look to be Vantage XL seats.
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/airbus-to-fit-29-mini-suites-in-us-carriers-a330neo-454074/
What's with the space on the right in which they could have fit one more DeltaOne suite?
@henry LAX mad you can't get as many 'free' upgrades into J?
another proof that of the stupid "DL is the choice premium customers" BS their trolls love saying and yet, time and again, their J cabin is tiny, and only getting worse with each new plane type or re-config
(queue the "DL is there for profit" and "DL only caters to paying passengers" nonsense from the gate agents, flight attendants, and ramp workers of ATL)
That’s right; word on the street is no doors on the A330 or 767 products. “Suite” seems to be the product for 12+ hour missions (A359/B777) while a refreshed D1 product with elements of the Suite is what it looks like we’ll see for missions generally under 12hr.
"since I love the A330’s 2-4-2 configuration"
And I love flying pigs!
Looks like it will be normal Delta One (without doors). In the same filing for the A350 page they call out and say they with be suites with closable doors, but on the A330neo page, they dont mention the closable doors...
DL is currently adding Comfort+ to all of the reconfigured 777s, some are already completed. Those will all be 4 class as well.
I'm still thinking on how Delta would still make the 1-2-1 suites comfortable with a whole 18 inches of usable cabin width gone, compared to the A350. The aisles on the A350 suites are already tight. I thought they will go with alternating 1-2-1/1-1-1, like what ANA have on their 787-8, but apparently not.
Lucky, Jodi is right about the 777. When Delta started retrofitting the 777s they went with 3 seat products, Delta One, Premium Select and Main Cabin, like the A350-900s Delta has (and will get). But now Delta is installing also C+ on the 777s.
I assume they rethought it after deciding to make the A330-900neos 'complete' with all four products.
Certainly a much smarter configuration than American's decisions to reduce premium cabin scape (what were they thinking???) but in this case I still think United is going to benefit more financially with their decision to expand premium cabin space on elite heavy routes.
Looks like a nicely balanced configuration- should be good for the markets it will be flying. Also very happy to see an expansion of Comfort+ in addition to DPS. 56 C+ seats on the 339 compared to 40 on the 333 is a more comfortable ratio. Looking forward to flying this!
The 777 have 4 cabins, for example check the flights from ATL to NRT in April.
The A330 NEOs will be significantly larger than the 767s they are replacing. I'm wondering if that will lead to excess capacity on some routes?
The A330 is a lovely plane and I also love the 2 x 4 x 2 seating in Y-- so glad to see them enter the A330NEO enter the Delta family. Delta will now be the only airline in the world to operate all A330 versions (-200/-300/-900NEO).
Depending on pricing, premium economy could be a very good for couples
I'd imagine the Delta One suites would be really tight given that on their a350s already have tight aisle. Given that they said they will be reconfiguring some 767s with new product, i wonder what configuration they'd go with for Delta One and premium select as current Delta on is a tight 1-2-1 and airlines such as icelandair, on their 767s, have a 2-1-2 configuration in their business class (similar seat to premium economy) and...
I'd imagine the Delta One suites would be really tight given that on their a350s already have tight aisle. Given that they said they will be reconfiguring some 767s with new product, i wonder what configuration they'd go with for Delta One and premium select as current Delta on is a tight 1-2-1 and airlines such as icelandair, on their 767s, have a 2-1-2 configuration in their business class (similar seat to premium economy) and airlines such as air canada rouge go 2-2-2 with their 767 premium economy.