Delta cancels Dreamliner order

Delta won’t be flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner anytime soon.

The airline has reached an agreement with Boeing to cancel the order for 18 787-8 Dreamliners that it assumed as part of its 2008 merger with Northwest Airlines.

Delta didn’t disclose specific terms of its deal with Boeing, but the planes are worth $4 billion at their list price.

The decision comes as Delta is reigning in capacity growth amid weakening revenue, especially on international, widebody flights. For the first three quarters of 2016, Delta’s average revenue per available seat mile was down 6.6% on transatlantic flights and down 9.3% on flights to the Pacific basin. Delta expects to grow capacity by just 1% in 2017, the airline said during its most recent earnings report.

The carrier said that it would continue taking delivery of narrowbody Boeing 737-900ERs through 2019, fulfilling an order of 120 such aircraft.

Delta also has 25 Airbus A350 widebody planes on order. In May, Delta deferred delivery of four A350s from 2018 to either 2019 or 2020, explaining that it was seeking to make the delivery dates more consistent with the expected pace of improvement in the international market.

Delta has a fleet of 830 aircraft, not counting planes operated by regional airlines for Delta Connection.

• Originally published in Travel Weekly News By Robert Silk / December 28, 2016