DL cuts 747 to 777 on MSP-NRT

[700UW]

July 21, 2011 – Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today announced it will begin operating flights between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Tokyo with Boeing 777 aircraft this fall, offering full flat-bed seats in BusinessElite and individual on-demand entertainment throughout both cabins of service.

Its about a 40% cut on weekly seats

 

[eolesen]

747's indeed are a dying breed at NRT.

I was there last week for a full day, and aside from freighters, only saw a single TG 747 taxiing out mid-day. Maybe the night operation is different, but just about everything else I saw moving was a widebody twin.

 

[700UW]

They might be at Haneda?

 

[WorldTraveler]

Given that the 777 has the best DL longhaul product throughout the cabin and has no performance restrictions and considerable cargo capability, the 777 is a step up from a customer standpoint. ATL-NRT is also a 777 so it gives DL 777 service in two key hub markets, 747s at DTW and JFK, and 330s and 767s from the western gateways and a mixture of all at HNL.
The combination of the 777s and 747s provides the flexibility to right size capacity to the market; although some carriers are slowly adding back Japan capacity, there is still more capacity in Japan.
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as of now, yes, the LAX-HND flight is a 777.
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The 744s will likely be back at NRT next year unless DL decides to use them elsewhere on their network... only 2 so far are being removed from the fleet. If they move forward w/ the total cabin refits, the planes will be around until the leases expire - but I don't expect much longer than 5 more years.

 

[DAL Mech]

747's indeed are a dying breed at NRT.

I was there last week for a full day, and aside from freighters, only saw a single TG 747 taxiing out mid-day. Maybe the night operation is different, but just about everything else I saw moving was a widebody twin.

I was there in June for about a week and DAL alone had 5 there a day. There were 747's all over the place there.

 

[Kev3188]

TDY, or just visiting?

As for the whales, I may be off, but afaik, DL still flies NRT- JFK/MNL/HNL/TPE/BKK/MSP (for now) with 'em...

 

[DAL Mech]

TDY, or just visiting?

As for the whales, I may be off, but afaik, DL still flies NRT- JFK/MNL/HNL/TPE/BKK/MSP (for now) with 'em...

There was a 767 there that needed some sheet metal work.

 

[eolesen]

I was there in June for about a week and DAL alone had 5 there a day. There were 747's all over the place there.

Looking at the NRT ops page on FlightAware, there are less than a dozen now:

KLM862	B744	Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM / AMS)			
DAL646	B744	Honolulu Intl (PHNL)	
CAL18	B744	Honolulu Intl (PHNL)	
DAL610	B744	Honolulu Intl (PHNL)	
AAR105	B744	Incheon Int'l (RKSI / ICN)	
UAL837	B744	Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Int'l (VTBS / BKK)
UAL838	B744	San Francisco Intl (KSFO)	
DAL622	B744	Minneapolis/St Paul Intl (KMSP)	
DAL172	B744	John F Kennedy Intl (KJFK)	
DAL276	B744	Detroit Metro Wayne Co (KDTW)

By comparison, there were 38 777s, 36 767s, 11 A330/340 and 5 A380s...

Long live the whale, but it's been just about hunted to extinction in passenger service at NRT.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Given that DL is still the largest single transpacific airline in Japan by a considerable margin and has more transpacific gateways - and based on the latest DOT data has the the highest revenue share (even if you consider alliances as one airline), DL has every reason to use the 744 as long as it can.
During the off-peak winter season, it is very possible to downgrade a single route in DL's US-Japan network and still have much more revenue generating capacity than any other airline.