Delta to retain fourteen B757s past 2017

Delta Air Lines will retain fourteen of its 111 B757-200s past their original 2017 retirement date following the collapse in July of talks with its pilot corps over a tentative Collective Labour Agreement (CLA). Delta, which had tied the purchase of twenty EMB-190s and forty B737-900(ER)s to the CLA's ratification, had planned to replace the B757s with the newer B737s.

Airline spokesman Michael Thomas told Bloomberg news this week that given the change in circumstances, the jets would now be refurbished instead.

"These fourteen B757s still have plenty of useful life and will receive similar nose-to-tail cabin upgrades as we've done on other domestic aircraft," he said.

Delta uses its B757-200s on domestic US flights as well as on regional services to Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America, as well as to Europe. The US carrier recently acquired five more B757-200s from Shanghai Airlines (FM, Shanghai Hongqiao) with four currently undergoing predelivery maintenance checks at San Antonio Int'l.
ch-aviation / Photo:Duncan Stewart - LAX