Delta to Upgrade JFK-NRT to 747-400, 3 New Routes

[Iberia A340-600]

For the summer 2010 schedule Delta Air Lines will be upgrading their daily JFK-NRT flight from a 777-200 to a 747-400 effective June 1st.

Delta will also be adding three news routes from JFK: Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Abuja. ARN + CPH will be daily 757 flights while Abuja will be a 3xweekly 767-300 flight.

[kc2aqg]

They will also be upgauging the lift on JFK-TLV from 763 to 744 as well, so JFK will be getting 2 744's next summer.

[cancidas]

glad to see 4-holers still flying over the atlantic....

[lijk604]

Should be in Delta paint too...a nice change.

[Delta777LR]

YES!!!!!!!! Im happy to hear about this

[heeshung]

Reminds me of when I flew Northwest's 747's from JFK to Tokyo, which are essentially the same planes.

[hiss srq]

Reminds me of when I flew Northwest's 747's from JFK to Tokyo, which are essentially the same planes.
Same grumpy faces too! :twisted: Same pig, diffrent makeup. Cant wait to see DAL 744's at JFK.

[Delta777LR]

Reminds me of when I flew Northwest's 747's from JFK to Tokyo, which are essentially the same planes.
Same grumpy faces too! :twisted: Same pig, diffrent makeup. Cant wait to see DAL 744's at JFK.

I feel the same, im very excited about that, also it would nice to catch the 744 in NWA colors at JFK if they are not all painted by then, or else wat the heck I caught them in the 90s colors

Heres the shot I took back in 03 or 04
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o37/sergair/IMG_5715.jpg

[ChrisW]

Reminds me of when I flew Northwest's 747's from JFK to Tokyo, which are essentially the same planes.No 747-400 has been withdrawn from use (yet). All 16 former NWA 747-400s were acquired on the day the merger closed. By the time these routes begin, though, a number of 747-400s will be removed from service and relegated to charter operations. It will be an interesting change of theatre for the former NWA folks though. I don't believe NWA has ever served the Middle East (speaking in terms of the JFK-TLV pair) - at least not in recent memory.

[hiss srq]

It is going to be great to get their/Delta/Northwest 744's back to JFK in any form. I assume by charter your referring to replacing the 742's that have seen their last sunset at RVSM altitudes?

[hiss srq]

BTW.......... How soon will the workgroups be intergrated as in Delta crews ahead and behind the door being able to bid onto NW birds like the babybus and 744 etc...?

[ChrisW]

hiss srq - They will be replacing the 200s on military charters mostly. Every now and then a sports team would charter a 200 so I suspect the 400s will be similarly used. As for workgroups, speaking in terms of the pilots - they have already ironed out a contract. The pilot contract has five year fence built into it preventing pre-merger Delta pilots from bidding onto pre-merger NW aircraft and vice versa. There are a large number of employees still waiting to solve union representation issues. My department is going through this process as we speak, although we are just awaiting a class/craft ruling from the National Mediation Board (NMB). I work in flight simulator maintenance.

How does the merger affect my job? Due to the pre-merger obligations held in an agreement NWA had with the Minneapolis Airports Commission, flight simulators at the MSP-N building will remain there until 2016 (this was renegotiated down from 2020 immediately following the merger). There are currently no plans to move any flight simulators from MSP to the Atlanta site - namely because we simply do not have enough open simulator bays here. And then there's the cost - you're looking at $20,000 per simulator move. The 787 simulator Boeing/Alteon housed at the MSP-N site is currently being dismantled and is slated to be sent to Japan last I heard.

In terms of the overall progress of the merger, it has been remarkably smooth, especially when you compare it to the US Airways/America West debacle. The Delta/Northwest merger has been nothing short of a success; upper level management recognizes this and has awarded us with additional money in our pockets as a result. The recently announced summer 2010 schedule builds on the cross-fleeting that was done this past summer. By the time the 2010 schedule is flown, though, the Northwest callsign will no longer be in use.

I suspect that December 31, 2009 will be the "end" for everything that's left of Northwest as we expect a single operating certificate by then. When a SOC is awarded, all pre-merger Northwest flights will begin using the "Delta" callsign. Technology cutover will also happen around this time.