On January 13, 2026, Delta announced a firm order for 30 Boeing 787-10s with options for 30 more — its first direct 787 purchase — positioned mainly for transatlantic and South America. Readers of this blog knew it was coming – I covered JonNYC‘s leak back in July.
- It’s a 767 replacement with a big margin improvement potential. They’ll put in better premium products with more premium seats, save fuel, and it gives them more cargo potential. The 787-10 offers good economics if you don’t need ultra-long range.
- Boeing would have given them a phenomenal deal to get into their widebody order book. They haven’t placed this kind of order in more than two decades and they cancelled Northwest’s 787 order. Until recently they were primarily a used and Airbus operator. And they’re no longer ‘locked into’ Airbus.
- Delta is big enough to add fleet complexity if it buys something materially better for specific missions.
Current Delta Business Class Suite
However, deliveries don’t start until 2031. So the order doesn’t solve near-term replacement gaps. Although it suggests we could be seeing those old 767s – which have a worse onboard product than any other major transatlantic carrier – for quite some time.
JonNYC suggests that Delta is not done going shopping for planes. That suggests to me an Airbus order.
Delta:
Why do I get the distinct feeling that the company credit card is still out even after it's recent workout at the Boeing store.— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) January 15, 2026 at 10:04 PM
One Mile at a Time points out that Delta isn’t expected to take deliveries of any widebodies roughly between the A350-1000 stream (2027–2028-ish) and the 787-10 stream (starting 2031). And he suggests that the Airbus A330-900 is most likely.
- If the goal is to plug that gap, the A330-900neo is the only realistic candidate because there’s a years-long wait for new A350s and 787s.
- Delta already has a substantial A330-900 fleet
- They need more widebodies to replace A330-200s and -300s, not just 767s.
Delta A350-900
He makes a good case that Delta needs to source a plan for replacement aircraft, the A350-1000 is more well-suited to ultra-long-haul growth, and the A330-900 makes the most sense for what to expect. JonNYC endorses this speculation, and explicitly adds not to expect an Airbus A350-1000 order.
So if you look at @onemileatatime.com piece on this, I believe he’s closest to what I would speculate.
A pretty sizable new order for -900 series aircraft.
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) January 18, 2026 at 9:15 AM
off-hand, I do -not- get the sense that this refers to more -1000s (either exclusively or at all.)
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) January 16, 2026 at 8:10 PM
This all seems pretty reasonable, and JonNYC isn’t speaking about this without sources at Delta speaking to him. He nailed Delta’s 787 order six months in advance. But let’s speculate a little further beyond (just the?) Airbus A330-900. He’s taking the A350-1000 off the table, but is silent on the A350-900.
- The A350-900 gives you rang the 787-10 can’t. The 787-10 is the high-efficiency, shorter-range and the A350-900 is long-range, high payload. It gets you more than 1,000 nautical miles more than the A330-900. That makes it work on long Asia and Africa routes.
- They already have 41 Airbus A350-900s. And while they’re already planning to add the -1000, that doesn’t replace older A330s since it’s too large.
- Even if near-term A350 delivery slots are tight, Airbus is going to be highly motivated after losing out on this most recent order to Boeing.
Airbus A350-900, Credit: Delta
The logic on an A330-900 order is strong, and we’d have to give it highest odds with JonNYC’s endorsement. But I still wonder if we might see A330s and A350-900s. Am I completely off base?
When the dust settles, someone needs to write a new book about how Boeing sqaundered its leading global market position in 25 years via a failed merger with an inferior and unprofitable competitor (MD), a myriad of catestrophic strategic + operational decisions and financial mismanagement…ceding a 70% global market share and 2X revenue & order volume of Airbus.
In the last decade alone, Airbus has lapped Boeing in total aircraft orders (10K vs 5K). Not surprising when you consider that the champion of the merger and then-Boeing’s CEO (Phil Condit) was married to his first cousin. You can’t make this stuff up
New planes for an airline that’s gone from best-in-class to a disaster operationally. What’s the point of having hardware if they can’t crew and dispatch reliably? 30% cancels on wholly-owned and operated Endeavor today. Yet again a reasonably-priced last-minute ticket on Murrcan gets me where I need to go when the Arrogant Dorito is completely unable (and rude AF about it).
Agreed. What’s sometimes forgotten is that Delta still has 20 Airbus widebody options they can exercise; these were placed with the A350-1000 order and many just automatically assumed they were for more 35Ks. In DL’s annual report, I believe they have temporarily listed these 20 options as 10 for the A330-900NEOs and 10 for the A350-900s. What could happen next is for them to exercise these 20 options and top-up with some new additional firm orders.
@ Gary — Tim Dunce will be here in three seconds to tell us how he polled everyone in his basement and that many people said that JonNYC is just stating the obvious.
I don’t have to poll anyone, Gene.
Delta has 20 outstanding Airbus widebody options that can be exercised for any widebody Airbus produces.
It’s in Delta’s 10K from last year and is no surprise.
Delta also laid out its delivery timeline for the A350-1000s.
The minute that DL announced the 787-10 order with delivery timeline, it was clear that there would be more Airbus widebodies.
And Airbus owes DL customer compensation for the delays to the A350-1000 which will probably be about one year.
The chances are high that DL is partly converting their option aircraft and taking some of Airbus’ customer compensation.
The A330-900 is available on a two year timeline and even less if Airbus is willing to move other customers to give DL earlier slots – if DL can get the cabin furnishings.
The 787 order has been discussed for years and the most reliable and updated updates came from the Delta forum on Airline Pilot Forums.
I am more than happy to give Jon credit when he manages to steal AA and UA’s secret documents but I have yet to see a thing that he has said about DL that isn’t heavily discussed elsewhere on the internet or, in this case, in DL’s public filings.
Tim Dunn wants to be JonNYC so bad is comical.
no, I have no interest in taking other people’s information and acting as if it is from my secret sources.
none of which changes that DL is going to convert some of its options to firm orders – those already have negotiated prices and delivery dates that are before 2031.
DL has not been pleased w/ Airbus’ delays on the 35K – and those are not the fault of any supplier but Airbus itself who had to redesign the extra fuel tank which DL is getting that is part of the same enhanced systems that are part of the QF Operation Sunrise aircraft
DL is also not happy with Rolls Royce with the Trent 7000 on the 339. In aviation, the way companies “apologize” is to offer customer compensation which is just further discounts on future aircraft.
DL already has paid less than $100 million for 339s (estimates are closer to $90 million). Adding even more discounts turns the 339 into a deal DL can’t ignore.
The sole reason why UA ordered its 2nd batch of MAXs and 787s is because Boeing owed UA so much compenstation.
and DL will almost certainly take more than 20 35Ks. when you fly them on 16-18 hour daily flights, 20 doesn’t go real far.
The 35K carries about 40 more passengers than the 359 (in DL’s expected configuration) and burns only marginally more fuel. and the 35K will easily be an 18 hour aircraft – by far the longest range and most capable and economical new generation aircraft in the US carrier fleet.
the only real question is if UA decides to finally take its A350 order – they will be at a distinct disadvantage to DL w/o it but that disadvantage will only be beyond 15 hours and above 225 passengers since Boeing is extending the range of the 787-9.
I’d love for Jon to tell us what he is hearing about UA’s 350 plans but I would bet they don’t take it.
Calling Jon an insider… must be really frustrating to some people… anyway, I think 339, 350 are the future for wide-bodies, and was a but surprised to learn Delta was reverting to Boeing.
Not a Delta issue anymore, but you ask crews which aircraft they prefer for long-haul rest areas, ironically, many say, 777, because, by contrast, the a350, for instance, is cramped. It’s not everything, but it counts. Sadly, Boeing can’t seem to manage to get the 777X delivered, so… more will go to Airbus.
@Tim Dunn,
My question is why would DL take more 35Ks? DL doesn’t have that many routes to deploy more of them on. I could see DL planning a couple, but really there aren’t many that need the ULR type range.
Thanks
PIlot,
There isn’t a stretch model of an aircraft family that DL operates that they haven’t strongly embraced the largest member of the family.
the 35K carries just 40 more passengers in DL’s rumored configuration of about 315 passengers than the 275 on their 359s. It simply doesn’t carry that many more passengers.
the 35K is most commonly lined up with the 777-300ER but DL will have fewer seats than AA will have on their 777Ws which have fewer seats than UA’s. But the 35K burns 20-25% less fuel than the 77W.
and remember that DL did operate the 744 but didn’t go w/ a large widebody when AA and UA bought end of line 77Ws.
It does have a whole lot more cargo capacity which matters to/from Asia.
and from a competitive standpoint, neither AA or UA have anything that can touch the economics of the 35K over the Pacific; UA could decide to finally take the 350 because of the advantage DL has but DL will have a pretty significant headstart.
DL waited for Airbus to put the range on the 35K that tops the 777-200LR (which DL operated and neither AA or UA did) and provide best in class economics.
I strongly bet that DL will order more 35Ks for capabilities and more 339s for low acquisition price and earlier deliveries.
and I’m still not certain that DL will order a whole lot more than the 20 Airbus widebody options they already have.
It’s funny how I care about this when it really isn’t all that important for me. They only make 330neos, 350s, 787s, and, soon maybe, 777Xs in widebodies. I care about hard product, but all four can be outfitted nicely in J. Obviously 777>350>787>330 it terms of cabin width, and the ability to give a spacious feel. The 350, 77X, and 787 all have better effective altitude in the cabin than the 330. But, while I’d prefer to avoid the narrowest, highest effective altitude 330, I’ll only see them TATL with DL. And, TBH, I suspect if you put me in J on a DL 339 or 359 randomly in a way I wouldn’t know which I was on, I bet I couldn’t tell after the flight.
When he says 900 series. He means a350-900
It seems that some people have an issue with “insiders” divulging information that is not meant to be shared. I love reading breaking news if the information is being obtained without agreements being broken, but if information that is not for public consumption is shared with outsiders, I too feel that is problematic.
@ Tim — When are you going to realize that no one reads your comments? I certainly don’t.
you obviously did or you wouldn’t have bothered to reply.
None of which changes that there was absolutely nothing top secret or insider in knowing that DL is going to convert its 20 Airbus widebody options and potentially add to it using its customer compensation.
@aj90x I have to agree they have really gone to pot operationally. Last year was poor with Delta, and I see their delays are every bit as high in % as AA, with more cancelations. We are seeing daily cancelations at the same rate as they used to have in a month total. It’s really sad. But their planes are ancient and crapped out because they aren’t being maintained. This big storm coming in is gonna stink for everyone, but it’s gonna hit them ALL at some of their hubs. we will see who can recover quickly, and who can’t.
This might well be the year I move to another carrier. They may suck as much, but they will cost less, and their planes will be newer with better interiors. We will see how these first few high prices ‘premium’ seats in ‘premium class’ go.