TOULOUSE – After receiving the 12,000th Airbus aircraft earlier this year, Delta Air Lines has received the first of 35 ordered A330neos on May 24, 2019. Delta ordered the longest version, the A330-900, which can accommodate 281 passengers. The A330neo should gradually replace the Boeing 767 on distant flights.

The A330neo made its first flight on October 19, 2017. New fuel-efficient engines are the most important improvement that the A330neo series offers over the current generation of A330s. In addition, Delta seized the introduction of the type to introduce a new cabin product that closely resembles that on the Airbus A350.

On board there is room for 29 passengers in Business Class, which at Delta consists of so-called Delta One Suites. In addition, there are 28 seats in Premium Economy and 224 in Economy Class.

Delta has ordered 35 A330neos and has ordered an additional 13 A350-900s, adding to its 12 already in fleet. This looks like there is a shift towards a primarily Airbus fleet, which is quite remarkable when you look at Delta’s history with Boeing. Delta operated the biggest fleet of 767s in the world, but now have a total of 271 Airbus aircraft on order and only 4 from Boeing.

The first flight of the Delta A330neo is scheduled to take place on July 15, 2019. This is 2 weeks later than planned, due to the postponed delivery by Airbus on May 24.

The airline has announced the following routes for the brand new A330neo:

• Seattle – Shanghai: Beginning July 15.
• Seattle – Seoul: Beginning August 1.
• Seattle – Tokyo: Beginning August 31.

TAP Portugal was the first to fly with the A330-900neo. The A330neo was delivered to TAP Portugal on December 15, 2018 and went in service early this year with flights between Lisbon, Portugal and Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Airbus has 238 orders of the A330-900neo from 15 different airlines, including Air Asia, Garuda Indonesia and Kuwait Airlines.

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(Top image: © Airbus)