As much as Delta Air Lines often gets credit for being a “premium” airline, the reality is that many of the carrier’s long haul aircraft don’t have particularly competitive interiors, especially in Delta One business class.
Along those lines, there’s at least some positive news when it comes to a subfleet of aircraft that Delta has been flying in recent years…
Basics of Delta’s ex-LATAM Airbus A350-900s
In 2019, Delta announced plans to invest in LATAM, which was a major development at the time. Unfortunately the timing didn’t prove to be great, given the pandemic. In May 2020, LATAM filed for bankruptcy protection due to the pandemic, and as part of that, the airline announced it would retire its entire Airbus A350-900 fleet.
Delta took advantage of this opportunity to grow its own fleet. The airline picked up nine used LATAM A350s. The planes were still very new, and given that Delta had retired its entire Boeing 777 fleet during the pandemic, the airline saw value in using the planes to grow capacity (which was wise, given the strong demand we’ve seen in recent years for long haul travel).
So over the past few years, we’ve seen these planes phased into service, though unfortunately the experience left a lot of passengers disappointed.
For context, Delta’s standard A350-900s have historically featured 306 seats, including:
- 32 business class seats with doors, in a 1-2-1 configuration
- 48 premium economy seats, in a 2-4-2 configuration
- 226 economy seats, in a 3-3-3 configuration
Meanwhile the former LATAM A350-900s feature 339 seats, including:
- 30 business class seats, in a 2-2-2 configuration
- 63 extra legroom economy seats (not premium economy), in a 3-3-3 configuration
- 246 economy seats, in a 3-3-3 configuration
As you can see, these former LATAM jets featured a pretty uncompetitive experience, as they don’t have direct aisle access from every business class seat, and don’t have premium economy. Furthermore, they didn’t initially have Wi-Fi, but that has since been installed.
Delta had committed to reconfiguring the ex-LATAM A350-900s to feature the standard Delta interiors, though the process of reconfiguring these planes has been anything but quick. Fortunately there’s now a positive update…
Delta has almost completed its A350 retrofit project
Over the past year or so, Delta has slowly been reconfiguring its A350-900s to feature the carrier’s updated interiors. So far, seven of the nine ex-LATAM A350s have been reconfigured. There’s now a positive update, as it appears that all of the A350s with ex-LATAM interiors should be out of service by late October 2025, coinciding with the end of the IATA summer travel season.
As flagged by AeroRoutes, the last ex-LATAM A350 flight has been scheduled for October 25, 2025. So while there’s still a chance you might end up on one of these planes, odds are small.
Keep in mind that these planes are being reconfigured not in Delta’s original A350-900 layout, but instead, in the new premium layout. In 2024, the Atlanta-based carrier revealed it would introduce new lower density A350s. Rather than featuring 306 seats, they instead feature 275 seats. Essentially, these planes have 40 business class seats (rather than 32), 48 premium economy seats (rather than 40), and 195 economy seats (rather than 226).
So I’d say that this is all great news. Now if only Delta could do something about its Boeing 767-300ER fleet, as those planes otherwise have the worst international, wide body business class product of any “big three” US airline (and please don’t “BuT tHoSe PlAnEs WiLl Be PhAsEd OuT oF iNtErNaTiOnAl FlYiNg By 2030” me).
Bottom line
In 2022, Delta began flying some ex-LATAM Airbus A350-900s, which the airline opportunistically acquired. While the added capacity was good for Delta, unfortunately the onboard experience left a lot to be desired.
In recent times, we’ve seen Delta start to reconfigure these jets into the standard Delta layouts, and there’s now some good news. Only two of the planes remain in their original layout, and the expectation is that they’ll be reconfigured by late October 2025. So Delta passengers will only have to deal with these planes for a couple more months.
What do you make of this update about Delta’s ex-LATAM A350s?
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