Delta Shares Details of Its Future Fleet Plans, Which Include a Lot More Premium Seats

Delta Air Lines has finally shared some details regarding what its flyers can expect in terms of new additions to its fleet and upgrades to existing aircraft.

Long story short, a lot more premium seats are coming to the Atlanta-based carrier’s fleet of narrow-body and wide-body jets.

Here’s a look at what’s coming for Delta flyers.

New Aircraft Coming With Big Premium Cabins

Joe Esposito, Delta’s chief commercial officer, shared details at an event in Austin, including some interesting tidbits surrounding the future of the carrier’s fleet first reported by From the Tray Table.

To start, let’s talk about the new planes joining the fleet. At the beginning of this year, Delta ordered 16 more examples of the Airbus A330-900neo, which will join the existing fleet of 39 of this aircraft type. However, the new frames will come equipped with a whopping 56 Delta One Suites and will be deployed on routes where there’s heavy demand for premium seats, such as London (LHR).

The carrier is also expecting 20 deliveries of brand-new Airbus A350-1000s, which will come equipped with 53 next-generation Delta One Suites, as we previously reported.

These planes will also feature 48 Delta Premium Select and 51 Delta Comfort seats, meaning each will be configured with a majority-premium-seating layout.

Narrow-body aircraft are also seeing a boost in premium seating. Delta is already flying Airbus A321neo aircraft with a staggering 44 seats in the first class cabin. And while these aircraft are destined to receive lie-flat seats up front eventually, Esposito says the demand is there to install larger first class cabins on more narrow-body planes.

He said the carrier’s Boeing 737 MAX 10s will be delivered with 24 first class seats, and that he believes the ideal range for these narrow-body planes is anywhere from 24 to 44 seats up front.

Retrofits Will Bring a Much-Needed Refresh to the Fleet

Delta’s existing Airbus A350-900s, which are equipped with 32 Delta One Suites, are going under the knife about a decade after their original introduction.

The retrofit program, which the airline says will be complete at the end of 2027, will bump that figure up to 40 Delta One Suites per aircraft.

And, mercifully, Delta’s existing fleet of Airbus A330-300s and A330-200s will finally begin getting new cabins this winter. These planes, most of which are around 20 years old and remain a workhorse for the carrier, will receive Delta One Suites up front, in addition to new Premium Select and economy cabins.

Delta’s Precarious Position

These fleet upgrades couldn’t come soon enough. Delta has spent years honing an image that has earned it a reputation as the top carrier in the U.S.

However, after being the first U.S. carrier to introduce fully enclosed suites in business class with its original Delta One Suite in 2017, the fleet has suffered from a lack of consistency across aircraft types, with its Airbus A350s and A330-900neos sporting competitive suites and its ancient Boeing 767s and Airbus A330-200 and -300s making do with antiquated hard products in the front end of the aircraft.

At the same time, its chief rivals, American Airlines and United Airlines, have made significant improvements to their premium products.

United, in particular, has made a lot of noise about capturing pole position among U.S. carriers. Its fleet is already quite consistent in terms of hard product in the premium cabin, and it’s racing to roll out the latest iteration of its Polaris business class product, which will bring fully enclosed suites to a large percentage of its long-haul aircraft.

American, too, has introduced a brand-new Flagship Suites product on wide-body and narrow-body aircraft that offers flyers a fully enclosed pod.

Delta desperately needs to bring its entire fleet up to speed so that it can maintain its reputation and fend off ever-more-fierce competition from its rivals.

Final Thoughts

Big changes are coming to Delta’s fleet, which is great news for the airline’s flyers. Soon, retrofitted and brand-new wide-body aircraft will join the fleet, bringing far more premium seats than what’s currently available.

Flyers can also expect larger domestic first class cabins as more A321neos and 737 MAX 10s join the fleet.