Delta Air Lines has announced an interior cabin refresh. They’re tying this to their 100 year anniversary, presenting a new more modern image. The palette is darker. They won’t swap out seats, just add memory foam padding to some seats. And they’re adding new lighting. Naturally this is pitched as being “premium” and a new interior, to most passengers, feels like new planes.
Key Design Elements
Delta’s new cabin interiors are characterized by deeper shades of blue and grey, with red accents. Royal blue leather seats will be replaced by a darker navy blue, complemented by grey stitching and red trim throughout all classes.
Delta is also rolling decorative motifs like the “Infinite Grid” and “Celestial Sky” patterns that will adorn bulkheads, dividers, and lavatories.
Lighting and Ambiance
Delta’s cabin refresh includes mood lighting designed for various phases—boarding, dining, and sleeping-shifting through warm tones for boarding and meals, while a “sunset glow” is meant to ease passengers into rest during overnight flights. As dawn approaches, the cabin lighting will gradually brighten.
Credit: Delta
Lavatories will be refreshed with bright walls, the signature “Celestial Sky” pattern, and Azure Blue cabinets. Flooring will be updated to improve appearance of cleanliness and traction. The lavs are still tiny though!
Credit: Delta
Memory Foam and Seating Upgrades
Delta is not introducing new seats. Instead, memory foam cushions will be installed across some seats, from domestic first class to the long-haul economy.
Credit: Delta
Delta One business class seats, traditionally covered in leather, will instead see a wool-nylon blend which the airline says is better at temperature regulation.
Credit: Delta
Premium Select and domestic-style first-class cabins will also benefit from this memory foam change.
Credit: Delta
Timeline for Implementation
The first Boeing 757 with the refreshed cabin design is expected to begin flying domestic and short-haul international routes later this year.
Early next year, the updated interior will make its debut on an Airbus A350 serving long-haul international routes.
Beyond that, Delta has not provided a detailed timeline for retrofitting the rest of its fleet, except to say they will do it gradually and over a period of years, subject to delays for operational needs (they don’t want a bunch of aircrafts out of service for this).
Lipstick On A Pig?
Darker tones and modern design do seem sleek and elegant, but also lack the distinctiveness that previously set Delta apart – seemingly generic in appearance along the lines of Air Canada and Air France cabins.
Is the new color scheme better than the current blue?
It’s far from clear how memory foam and breathable fabrics will translate into comfort. You may see this as a new investment in the product, but it’s also a cheaper approach compared to actually replacing seats. No matter how many times Delta repeats the word ‘premium’ in its marketing of this refresh that will take many years, any issues with service, wifi and inflight meals remain.
Ultimately I’ll have to see it in person, and sit in the seats for several hours, to have a fully-developed opinion of what the airline announced today.
@ Gary — The seats look poor, like Spirit Airlines.
Hey you at least have to give them credit for doing a mockup (check out the video in their PR piece). As opposed to AA when they did the 737 Oasis project…
Delta is drawing inspiration from Air France. The cabin interiors, specifically the seat coverings in Economy look very similar. The expense and scale of this project is enormous. The existing Delta cabins are increasingly dated (save for the refreshed Delta One suites) and really haven’t had much in the way of revision since the 2007 era rebrand that coincided with the bankruptcy exit.
@Gary
Can you believe (I got their bragadocious email this morning) they are STARTING this process on their 757s? You know the oldest-still-flying 757 fleet; the fleet that should be beer cans by now.
The fleet that should have long since been replaced by A321NEOs.
I mean DAL are detached from reality, but they aren’t completely dummmm. This is a low-cost way to “freshen” a stale fleet, but it’s sorta trying to hide the situation. Their fleet is old. The MAX10s aren’t coming any time soon. And they should have bought more A321 derivatives when they had the chance.
anyone that doesn’t understand that Delta is doing a cosmetic refresh that involves a change in materials and with that comes the opportunity to change color schemes is missing the point.
I have sat in far more broken seats on other airlines than I have on Delta so they do maintain what they have.
Delta has long refreshed its cabins including w/ AVOD and WiFi long before other airlines have done, if they are doing it at all.
Materials change and Delta has the opportunity to use new fabrics and materials and change colors, the perception and use of which changes for everyone.
And Burt, United has the oldest fleet in the US, not Delta. And Delta has some of the last 757s which came off the assembly line. They are retiring several 757s this week and will continue to do that for those that have reached the end of their life but the notion that the 757 should be sent out to pasture comes from those that are clueless about how great of an airplane Boeing once built.
And, yes, the massive growth plans of some airlines are just not happening. Neither Boeing or Airbus can produce the number of airplanes that some airlines want.
Delta has long established that it takes care of its planes until it sends them to the desert. This is just the latest in a long series of cabin refreshes.
The decorative motifs and mood lighting sound interesting! 🙂
Um. Navy “breathable” fabric is likely to hide the nastiness that occurs between deep cleaning. ( ha ). My guess is this is why it was selected.
@TimDunn —> I agree…but it’s still lipstick on a pig.
“Delta has long refreshed its cabins including w/ AVOD and WiFi long before other airlines have done, if they are doing it at all.”
Yeah, no. Delta is woefully behind aa on WiFi and even United had satellite wifi before delta
Delta still doesn’t wifi on some mainline planes, at all, still uses Gogo on a large number of the 717s, and still doesn’t have a satellite provider that provides global coverage while United and AA both do.
Facts, tim. Not your hopes and dreams of what you desperately want to be true
In other news, Tim fully admitted that Tim Dunn is not his real name on OMAAT today after lying about that here and other places for quite some time.
Apparently, it’s ok to lie when you think MaxPower is my real name per Tim’s response.
pmNW DC9s, DC10s, 727s and 747-200s had the proverbial “Don’t laugh its paid for” bumper sticker on them 🙂
I think that same philosophy lives on at DL with their A319s, A320s, 757s and 767s. Would have also added the 717s, but read somewhere those will be retired next year.
It will probably take 10 years for these changes to work their way down to the regional jets, if they ever do. Meanwhile, the A330s in Delta One are way, way past their expiration date.
However, it is Premium Lipstick on a PIG.
Polishing a turd still makes it a turd, although in this case, it’s a premium turd.
I fly the A321T on AA in J regularly. Their seats are fabric covered. I never thought fabric was any less comfortable than leather.
A premium move would be to add a couple of inches of legroom to all seats but Delta won’t do that because they only love premium when it costs them little to nothing.
Anything Delta does has to be perfect because Delta is the world’s only PERFECT airline. Just ask Tim Dunn.
of course, Brian Gasser, materials change and the move to faux leather is swinging back to fabric.
But people who have no clue what they are talking about are convinced that they personally are getting ripped off even when they don’t even fly Delta.
and, Max, you simply live in a fantasy land of interpreting reality that no other person on the planet is capable of.
YOU are the fraud that makes up names for which the only correct interruption is MAX hypocrisy.
and no other airline on the planet has even close to 600 airplanes in their fleet w/ free, high speed WiFi – and certainly not AA OR UA.
you clearly have a bugger up your backside about WiFi and you look more and more like the fool that you are when you keep arguing about what DL doesn’t have when it is clear that AA and UA are the laggards.
With the occasional post about Delta Gary gives someone a reason to get out of bed and turn on his computer……
I don’t understanding why you’re continuously bashing the only decent airline that America has to offer. They’re doing exactly what they’re saying: replacing padding and covers to seats that are more than competitive, all with large screens, and that don’t need replacing.
It’s like you have something against America — instead of celebrating its excellences (rare in the airline business), you bash at it.