COVID-19 Takes Its Toll On Delta Flagship Aircraft
COVID-19 Takes Its Toll On Delta Flagship Aircraft September 13, 2020 By: Michael Gutta On May 14, 2020, the CEO of Delta Air Lines Ed Bastian made a shocking announcement due to the global coronavirus pandemic: the airline would retire its Boeing 777 fleet within a mere 8 months. The statement from the airline started by saying, “Delta plans to retire its 18 widebody Boeing 777s by the end of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The retirement will accelerate the airline’s strategy to simplify and modernize its fleet, while continuing to operate newer, more cost-efficient aircraft.” There have been many aircraft put into storage and several aircraft type retirements for airlines around the world, but this has been the biggest fleet announcement for a United States airline. What makes this announcement even more surprising is that the Delta 777 fleet is only an average of 15 years old, and the whole fleet has been refitted since 2018 with the latest seats and cabin am