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Delta’s next batch of Airbus A330-900neos is getting a premium “high J” layout with more Delta One Suites.
Plus, its upcoming Boeing 737 MAX 10s will fly 24 first-class recliners — a figure Delta hasn’t shared publicly until now. And the classic Airbus A330s are finally getting their long-awaited retrofits.
That’s all according to Delta’s chief commercial officer, Joe Esposito, who spilled the beans about the airline’s fleet transformation in an interview with me on the sidelines of the carrier’s big Austin announcement.
Premium ‘high J’ A330-900neos are coming
Delta ordered 16 A330-900neos in January, joining the 39 the carrier already flies.
Those jets will debut with 56 Delta One Suites, according to Esposito, in a so-called “high J” configuration.
As for where they’ll fly, no big surprises there. Just look at where American and United primarily send their most premium-heavy jets: London.
“When you think about markets like London, where you’ve got really strong demand for that premium product, that’s what the premium A330neos are going to be,” Esposito told me in an exclusive interview.
Classic A330-200s and A330-300s get new cabins
Delta’s “classic” A330s — split between the A330-200 and A330-300 — are around 20 years old. They’re due for heavy maintenance checks starting this winter, and that’s when Delta will kick off an interior modification program to install new cabins on those jets.
This includes Delta One Suites.
The A330 retrofit program will take a “couple of years,” according to Esposito, who didn’t say whether the planes will get the original Delta One Suite or the next-generation version debuting on the A350-1000 next year.
A350-900 retrofits wrap up next year
When Delta unveiled its first Delta One Suites in 2016, it fit just 32 pods on the A350-900.
But, a decade later, no airline is chasing premium revenue harder than Delta.
So the carrier is retrofitting its A350-900s to grow the business-class cabin by eight seats. That subfleet, dubbed the “35H,” will become the standard configuration for all of Delta’s A350-900s.
Delta will finish this retrofit project by the end of next year, according to Esposito.
Where the A350-1000 will fly
Delta has 20 Airbus A350-1000s on order, with the first slated to enter service in the third quarter of next year, according to Esposito.
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The jets will seat 314 passengers split across four cabins:
- 53 next-generation Delta One Suites
- 48 Premium Select recliners
- 51 Delta Comfort extra-legroom seats
- 162 standard economy seats
Esposito is excited that “over 50% of the seats are premium on the A350-1000,” and the jet will haul roughly 20% more cargo than the A350-900.
That’s why Delta plans to send them to its biggest partner hubs. Esposito named Paris as a contender. I threw Seoul into the hat. (He agreed.)
Bigger domestic first-class cabins are coming
Delta’s new Airbus A321neo with 44 first-class recliners isn’t just a temporary stopgap while the airline waits for its lie-flat pods to get certified.
“We’re experimenting with how big a domestic premium cabin can be,” Esposito told me. The early data is in, and it indicates that Delta’s domestic first-class cabins should be much larger than today’s standard 20-seat configuration.
Delta’s upcoming Boeing 737 MAX 10s will carry 24 first-class recliners — a never-before-shared detail — and that’s still fewer than Esposito wants to fly.
“I think somewhere between 24 and 44 is the sweet spot. We need to see how big our cabins need to be because the demand is very strong.”
Case in point: the paid load factor in first class on the 44-seat A321neo is running at 80%. (And here I was thinking that would be the plane with easy upgrades.)
“It’s a really nice surprise that we’ve got such high demand for our premium products,” Esposito said.
Those A321neos may stick around in this configuration longer than Delta first anticipated — partly because of the certification process and partly because of how well the cabin is selling.
“We’re excited in a couple years to hopefully get that plane into service where it needs to be,” Esposito said of converting the jet to the lie-flat layout.
Bottom line
Delta’s fleet is about to look very different.
Nearly every widebody is either getting Delta One Suites or getting more of them, and a subfleet of A330neos will even sport a “high J” layout.
The domestic fleet is heading the same way, with larger first-class cabins planned for the newest jets.
It’s a costly bet that premium demand will keep climbing for years to come. Delta’s next-generation fleet only works if that pans out.
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