Amid a climate of tension following the attacks in Paris and the armed attack of a Mali hotel popular with foreigners, a French flight to the US deflected right route to return to Paris .
A Boeing 777-200 of Air France from Paris to San Francisco made a U-turn while flying over the Channel, as revealed air traffic control radars. It made several loops, before returning to France less than an hour after takeoff. The pilot did not report an emergency, it remains unclear why this change of route.
However, the passengers of the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris have been warned that all flights between Paris and the United States were canceled following the attack by an armed commando in a hotel in Mali on Friday 20 November. Some 12 members of the French airline staff there were held hostage before being evacuated. Moreover, the flight that would link Paris to Bamako was canceled.
RT en Français (via Google Translate)
Delta Air Lines purchase 11 used 77Es
Delta has signed on to bring in eleven 777-200ERs, formerly operated by Singapore/Scoot. This adds to the 18 current 777-200ER/LRs in the Delta fleet. A largely unnoticed but significant fleet addition.
Tie this to Delta’s mentioned intention to feed China Eastern’s hub at Shanghai, along with their recent request to get back an Haneda slot recently released to American, and there is no question that Delta is going to continue to double-down on Asian growth. Given the expected growth – particularly in China-US traffic – it’s solid strategy.
Delta’s fleet planning bears watching. They have 12 remaining 747-400s, which is a number similar to the 777s just acquired. There’s a good chance that within the next 18 months, there will no longer be any 747s in US scheduled passenger fleets. United is the only other operator, and neither it nor Delta have shown any public interest in the 747-8.
Unlike American and United, Delta apparently is not a big proponent of the 787. It still has 20 787-8s on the books at Boeing, but given that the deliveries are not scheduled for another 4-5 years, it’s not real likely that these may see Delta colors. Certainly, it’s not likely that -8s are in the cards.
On the other hand Delta may be waiting to get performance numbers from the 787-10 and could switch orders. Or, it’s possible that Airbus has already filled that need with the A-350s that Delta has coming.
Boyd Group Internationam