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In late May, the news broke that Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines would be leasing 88 Boeing 717-200s from its newly minted rival in Atlanta, Southwest Airlines. The Dallas based airline, which acquired the fleet of 717s from its merger with AirTran Airways (through which it also inherited a hub in Atlanta), had previously utilized only a single fleet type (the Boeing 737) for its entire 40+ year long history. But the new economic realities of growing labor costs and slower traffic growth at Southwest have combined to make the 717s uneconomical.
Either way, Bangalore Aviation can now reveal the tentative details of Delta’s 717 delivery schedule. Earlier, Delta had made the acquisition of these new aircraft contingent on its pilots approving a new contract that contained changes to Delta’s scope clause and increases in profit sharing with amongst other issues. This contract was approved on June 29th, and thus Delta will begin to take delivery of the 717s from August 2013. They will take on the aircraft at a rate of 3 per month continuously (with the exception of December 2013 when they will take delivery of 4 aircraft) until the end of 2015, at which time all 88 717s have been delivered. See below for Delta’s full 717 delivery schedule.
