yes, we know about Virgin's losses and its four engines for the long haul campaign.
The lifeline wouldn't go to Virgin. If the aircraft are available, it is because Virgin and the leasing companies that operate them decided to take Airbus on the offer to cash out based on low resale values.
Virgin has lost money because it tried to be independent well beyond when it was obvious that their essentially point to point int'l operation wasn't viable; BA operates an entirely different type of business model. Virgin, like many other younger airlines including WN, is also paying the price for no longer having a bunch of new hire employees and instead having to pay AVERAGE wages that are like the rest of the legacy carriers based on a more senior employee group.
Perhaps it is precisely because DL and LH both have the premium traffic to justify a less than fuel efficient asset that the deal might make sense. And LH wouldn't be using the 340s on the low cost routes if there were no ownership costs involved.
I am sure Anderson and co. will make whatever decision makes the most sense. The 340 deal if it even happens is clearly a short-term solution particularly in light of the increasing urgency to restructure the Pacific. The 744s increasingly do not work on DL's network. If the 346s can cut trip costs by 30% relative to the 744s, it could buy DL enough time to see how the rest of its new Pacific flights work and begin to wind down the 744s as their HMVs come due, perhaps shifting the 744 to other places on DL's network where it can be done.
BTW, DL led off traffic reporting for April with a 6% RASM increase on 3% more capacity. They noted that all regions were strong except the Pacific where LF was down 1 point on 2% more capacity. OTOH, DL added 24% more capacity to Latin America and managed to pick up 28% more traffic. The Atlantic had flat traffic on 5% less capacity while DL added 3% more domestic capacity and picked up 7% more traffic, again partially due to the Easter shift from March to April.
Every global airline has to continually balance strong and weak areas of their network. For the near future, DL will be working to reduce costs and manage capacity on the Pacific very closely while their biggest growth area appears to be Latin America followed by N. America. Even though DL's domestic system is far larger than their Latin system, the absolute amount of capacity added to each region was about the same.
