Delta says it can start retiring additional aircraft this year as capacity growth slows. With an order book largely favoring Airbus, the Atlanta-based airline remains shielded from ongoing delivery and quality control woes at Boeing.
During a second-quarter earnings call with analysts and reporters on Thursday, the carrier said it expects to take delivery of approximately 40 aircraft and retire 20 this year. According to Cirium Fleet Analyzer data, Delta currently has over 300 aircraft on order, including 213 Airbus jets.
“And I think the opportunities for us, as things stabilize and…as new aircraft continue to deliver, will be…to resume the retirement of our older fleet, which we indicated we’re already starting to do,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said during the conference call. He added that additional retirements will increase parts availability for the airline’s maintenance team.
The carrier’s oldest fleet types include the Airbus A320, Boeing 757, and 767 with some aircraft nearing 35 years old. Earlier this year, Delta said it plans to retire the 767-300 from long-haul service by 2028.
“As we’ve been trying to grow, we haven’t been able to retire what we’re used to. This is the first time we’re actually meaningfully retiring aircraft over the last two to three years,” shared the carrier’s finance chief Daniel Janki. “And that then benefits us…because that is a material stream back into our maintenance operations that can use that…and improve efficiency.”
Janki told analysts to expect a “steady drumbeat” of aircraft retirements through next year. In 2020, the airline retired its MD-80 and MD-90 fleets; data from Cirium shows just a handful of additional retirements since 2021.
Posting a $1.31 billion profit last quarter, the airline expects modest fleet growth this year of less than 2%. “In 2025, I don’t anticipate us having any problems with the aircraft that we’re going to need for the capacity we’d like to fly,” Bastian added.
