Airliners.net

Hello All,
What is going to happen to the TW 757-200's? There was a lot of talk on this forum that DL was buying the aircraft so that they could use them on some Int's routes as they had ETOPS and the proper engines to make the trip across the pond. However recently there hasn't been a statement from DL, or further conversation about this subject on this forum. can somebody shed some light as to the status of these birds, and if we can expect to see them in the DL fleet in the future?

Cheers from BDL,   
DeltaGuy767

Last I saw, DL applied to the BK court to lease the planes. I have no doubt that the court will approve the new leases.

I assume that it will take a bit for the planes to be modified to the DL interior (especially if they will be made Biz-E) and repainted in the DL livery.

I do not know about projected in service dates for the aircraft. Where's Otto?

Delta made a commitment to lease ten (10) of the ex-TW/AA PW powered 757s......the court must approve the transaction and its likely they will, this type of leasing deal will have minimal impact on DL's finances and DL can certainly put the airplanes to good use. The ex-TW 757s can be used for ETOPS operations (AA did not maintain the TW 752s to ETOPS standards, but DL can fix that) but its still unclear exactly what missions the ex-TW 752s will have at Delta.......some think that the airplanes will fly shorter thin transatlantic routes primarily from JFK, others think that DL needs the capacity in its domestic fleet and could use the ex-TW 757s on domestic and maybe Hawaii runs and thereby free up additional 767s for longhaul services. There was some talk about DL developing a BizElite interior for the 757, which could indicate tranatantic services, but it could also mean that this group of 757s will fly longer range routes from ATL to Latin America. To be honest, no one knows for sure (probably DL itself is still studying its options and possibilities) and we will have to wait and see.

There is a second part to this story.....beyond the ten (10) airplanes discussed, there are another 7 or 8 ex-TW 752s in the AA fleet....many think that DL will acquire those as well but so far there has been no news on that front.

DL strategy is probably to act conversatively until it can resolve any remaining financial issues, focus on emerging from bankruptcy (I think that DL still hopes to be done by the end of this year) and then we will hear much more concerning additions to the DL fleet.

The 10 are :

N702TW / 703TW / 704X / 706TW / 707TW / 709TW / 710TW / 712TW / 713TW / 721TW.

Quoting DLPMMM (Reply 1): Last I saw, DL applied to the BK court to lease the planes. I have no doubt that the court will approve the new leases.

I may be wrong, but I thought I saw a press release saying the judge had approved the 757 leases.

Quoting FCKC (Reply 3): The 10 are : N702TW / 703TW / 704X / 706TW / 707TW / 709TW / 710TW / 712TW / 713TW / 721TW.

Will they keep the TWA regs or put DL regs on the plane.

The first two 757's, when the deal is approved, are planned to enter DL's fleet in July 2007.

Quoting PSU.DTW.SCE (Reply 6): The first two 757's, when the deal is approved, are planned to enter DL's fleet in July 2007.

I'm suprised it would be that late.

Quoting FlyDeltaJets (Reply 5): Will they keep the TWA regs or put DL regs on the plane.

Delta has in the past left the original registry on 757s it's gotten 2nd hand, or maybe they've given them the distinct registry where they were foreign registered. I'd guess they'll probably leave the TW on them, since they don't tend to have a guaranteed correlation between the registry and the ship number (Except on the MD-88s)

Quoting DLPMMM (Reply 7): I'm suprised it would be that late.

Delta really doesn't have a choice as to how early they get them. These aircraft are currently leased to American, and as soon as they start coming off lease Delta will pick them up.

Quoting Antoniemey (Reply 8): Delta has in the past left the original registry on 757s it's gotten 2nd hand, or maybe they've given them the distinct registry where they were foreign registered. I'd guess they'll probably leave the WA Transworld Airlines (USA)">TW on them, since they don't tend to have a guaranteed correlation between the registry and the ship number (Except on the MD-88s)

Keep in mind that on some of the 733s they unloaded earlier this year still had the WA on the registration number for Western Airlines, whence they came back in the mid 1980s. Those 733s were the last of the old Western fleet to be retired as I recall.

Quoting ElmoTheHobo (Reply 9): Delta really doesn't have a choice as to how early they get them. These aircraft are currently leased to American, and as soon as they start coming off lease Delta will pick them up.

The sooner the better since DL is hurting for mainline a/c like the 752. I still think they will use at least 2-3 of them for Hawaii operations (LOA & OGG) from SLC, and they have the range to do such:

SLC-KOA:2966 miles, Boeing 752 range: 3900nm

Hopefully at SLC we will see more scenes like this:

DL is aiming for emergence from bankruptcy in the 2nd quarter of 2007; they have never said they expect to be out by the end of this year. NW is working on the same timeline.

The first 10 757s will come off leases from AA in 2007. DL will probably not be able to fly them overseas for at least 6 months and possibly longer so you will not likely see them used for European expansion until the summer of 2008 although they could possibly be used to downgrade routes during the slow winter season of early 2008. They can easily be put into the domestic system with a Business Elite cabin added in the month or two before they go overseas if that is desired. The ex-TW 757s will begin arriving just a month or so after the 764s start summer transatlantic service as BE aircraft so the 757s will help backfill the lost 764 domestic capacity.

The remaining 757s do not come off leases from AA until 2008 so DL doesn’t need to start worrying about leases until probably a year from now. Given that the 757 is still a cost-effective airplane and there is no viable replacement on the horizon, the 7 year leases for the first batch of 757s means DL could begin replacing the 757s in the 2015 timeframe – or the leases could be further extended.