Wed, Dec 17, 2008
Northwest Planes, Crews Coming To Delta Routes
Delta Airlines is diving right into
the task of reorganizing its fleet deployment following its
acquisition of Northwest Airlines. In a break from the now-common
strategy of focusing on as few aircraft models as possible to save
on training and maintenance costs, Delta will instead embrace fleet
diversity to optimize aircraft for routes served.
The Wall Street Journal reported on an internal memo outlining
14 changes the airline will make to improve efficiency. One example
is its service between New York and Venice, which has been run
using a Boeing 767-300. Delta says that starting next summer, it
will switch to using a larger Airbus A330 which came in as part of
Northwest's fleet.
Glen Hauenstein, Delta's executive VP of network planning, said
recently that fleet simplification, exemplified by Southwest
Airlines' exclusive use of Boeing 737s isn't necessarily the way to
go.
"We will trade off fleet complexity with an ability to better
match the market," he said.
For the time being, the combined airline will have to keep crews
from Northwest operating planes from the Northwest fleet, pending
receipt of a joint operating certificate from the FAA. Delta
expects that to happen by the end of 2009.
Regarding rumors Delta will make significant changes to aircraft
orders already placed with Boeing by both airlines before the
merger, a company spokeswoman would only say that a combined fleet
will have different future needs than those of two separate
airlines.
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