Featured Map for 19 January 2023:
Delta's Ex-LATAM A350 Sub-Fleet

Delta Air Lines currently has a fleet of 28 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, 19 acquired new from Airbus plus another nine previously flown by LATAM which Delta picked up starting mid-2021. Delta had retired their last Boeing 747 at the beginning of 2018 leaving the Boeing 777 as Delta's flagship aircraft, a mixed fleet of 777-200ER and 777-200LR aircraft totaling just 18 planes. Delta took advantage of the pandemic to eliminate the 777 fleet in 2020.

When air travel recovered from the pandemic more quickly than expected, Delta needed more long-range widebodies to operate its full international schedule. LATAM, in which Delta had acquired a 20% stake in 2019, filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2020, and as part of its restructuring it decided to eliminate the A350 from its fleet. Delta agreed to take nine A350s from LATAM. In order to get them into service quickly, Delta kept the LATAM configuration with 339 seats versus Delta's standard 306-seat configuration for the A350-900. The seats were reupholstered with Delta's standard materials but that was it. No Delta One Suites up front, nor Premium Select cabin. Internally, Delta refers to this configuration as the 35L.

This quick converstion allowed Delta to press three of the aircraft into service for summer 2022 on three routes from Atlanta:

• Santiago effective 7 June 2022
• Los Angeles effective 1 July 2022
• Dublin effective 1 August 2022

Delta's pending revival of flights from Atlanta to Tel Aviv, starting 26 March 2023 with thrice-weekly service and then expanding to daily as of 16 April 2023, will use the 35L aircraft.

Two of the ex-LATAM aircraft (N5658DZ and N569DZ) have already been upgraded to the standard interior configuration but are parked, along with two of the A350s which Delta bought new.

Two more ferried from storage in Victorville via Seattle to Singapore (N572DZ on 9 November 2022 and N571DZ on 12 January 2023). This may simply be for heavy maintenance rather than a cabin refit; N573DZ recently ferried from Singapore to Atlanta, still in the 35L configuration.

Today's Featured Map shows where Delta currently flies the 35L aircraft in bright red, plus a marker at Tel Aviv. Previous 35L routes are in darker red, and the routes on which Delta uses the standard A350 configuration are in grey.

References and additional information:

• Delta Air Lines
  • Our Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
  • Delta and LATAM Airlines to form the leading airline partnership throughout the Americas (26 September 2019)
  • Delta takes delivery of first flagship Airbus A350-900 (13 July 2017)
  • First look: A350, Delta's new flagship aircraft,
• LATAM Airlines
• The Points Guy (TPG)
  • Delta adds new long-haul route to French Riviera, upgrades longest Tel Aviv flight (13 January 2023)
  • Flying Delta's 1st 'new' Airbus A350, with unique business-class cabins (23 June 2022)
• One Mile at a Time
  • Delta Adds Atlanta To Tel Aviv Flights As Of March 2023 (23 August 2022)
  • Delta's Inferior "New" Airbus A350s (12 April 2022)
• Delta Air Lines Fleet Details and History – Planespotters.net
  
  
• Featured Map: Delta Air Lines A330s, From The Top (31 March 2017)
• Featured Map: Delta's 777 Flying (21 September 2015)
• Featured Map: Delta's Summer 747 Flying (22 June 2015)