Delta's Inferior "New" Airbus A350s

Delta Air Lines will soon be expanding its A350 fleet, but don't expect typical onboard products.

Delta acquiring former LATAM Airbus A350s

Delta will soon acquire nine A350-900s that were used to fly for LATAM. The announcement that Delta would invest in LATAM was made in 2019. The timing didn't prove to be great. LATAM filed for Chapter 11 protection in May of 2020 due to the Pandemic, and as a result it decided to retire its entire A350 fleet.

The Atlanta-based carrier got a great deal on the used LATAM A350s that it picked up. Delta could use more A350s, which are now its flagship long haul aircraft, since it retired its entire Boeing 777 fleet during the Pandemic.

Delta will put its first three LATAM A350s into service in the summer of 2022, and we can expect them to operate the following routes.

• Atlanta (ATL) to Santiago (SCL) as of July 1, 2022
• Atlanta (ATL) to Dublin (DUB) as of August 1, 2022

The first routes to get these planes will be the ones that follow.

Former LATAM A350s won’t feature standard Delta product

The former LATAM A350s won't feature Delta's signature A350 cabins, but they will retain the former LATAM cabins. Delta cares a lot about product consistency, so it is interesting to see this development.

The A350-900s from Delta have 306 seats, compared to the other product.

• 32 business class seats with doors, in a 1-2-1 configuration
• 48 premium economy seats, in a 2-4-2 configuration
• 226 economy seats, in a 3-3-3 configuration

The former LATAM A350-900s have 339 seats.

• 30 business class seats, in a 2-2-2 configuration
• 63 extra legroom economy seats (not premium economy), in a 3-3-3 configuration
• 246 economy seats, in a 3-3-3 configuration

The former LATAM jets won't feature direct aisle access from every business class seat, and also won't feature premium economy. The LATAM A350s didn't have wi-fi so it's not clear if they will have it before they are put into service with Delta. One benefit is that the jets have more capacity.

Bottom line

Delta will be integrating former LATAM A350s into its fleet in the coming months. The airline will eventually acquire nine of these, with three entering service this summer.

It is disappointing to see that these planes will not feature LATAM's original cabins. There will be no premium economy cabin for business class passengers. It is not known if these planes will have wi-fi.

The reconfiguration of these planes should match up with Delta's typical A350 product, though it is not clear when that will happen.

What do you think about Delta putting former LATAM A350s into service?

The tip of the hat was given to the man.