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Why the Boeing 757 continues to serve transatlantic flights in 2025

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Why the Boeing 757 continues to serve transatlantic flights in 2025
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Boeing 757 | Wikipedia

As of 2025, three airlines are set to operate Boeing 757 aircraft on transatlantic routes: Delta Air Lines, Icelandair, and United Airlines. Delta is the world's largest operator of the passenger variants of the Boeing 757, while United ranks second. All scheduled transatlantic flights for this year will involve Boeing 757-200 variants, with no plans for the 757-300s to make the crossing.

These two US-based airlines intend to continue operating 757s for years, despite others retiring them. In January 2025, Jet2 retired the United Kingdom's last Boeing 757, and Icelandair is also progressively retiring its fleet. Nevertheless, there are hundreds of monthly Atlantic crossings by the 757. This raises a question: why is the 757 still used for transatlantic flights?

The Boeing 757 possesses sufficient range to connect destinations in the northeastern US with those in Western Europe--particularly far Western Europe. Many of United's flights target Ireland and the United Kingdom. Notably, Iceland is much closer to the United States, making it an easier destination to reach.

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"According to Delta Flight Museum," said a source from Delta Flight Museum, "when th e757-200 entered service in1982,it boasted 'new technology wing and engines togive th ebest fuel mileageof anystandard-body airliner.' "

The aircraft offered an impressive45%betterfuel efficiency than older727sit replaced.Still,the relative economy haseroded overtime.

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,505 miles around80 .7 miles pergallon(mpg)perseat

With114 examplesinservice,the typeofaircraftmakesupabout12%ofDelta'sfleet. While new narrowbody aircraft like AirbusA32XLRor73MAX8maybemoreefficienton these routes,a irlinescanonlyflytheaircrafttheyhave.AsIcelandairreceivesitsnewA321s,itretire sitsold575s.Howev er,Deltaplansto holdontotheirconsiderablefleetslonger.Despiteagehigherfuelburn,costscanstillbecompetitiv eduetolowermaintenanceneedscommonalitypart sacrossremainingfleets .It enjoysahighdegreecommonalitywidebody767.BothDeltaoperateaconsiderableamount.

"The575sharedcommonsystemsBoeing767includingadvancedwingtechnologyairconditioningpacksauxiliarypowerunitTwoplaneshadsimilarflightdeckdesignssotheFAAallowedpilotswhoflewalsowithoutgoingthroughadditionaltraining"-DeltaFlightMuseum

Typicallyconfiguredaround200seatsmakinggreatsolutionroutesmoderatepassenger demand.Impressiverangenarrowbodyaircraftconnectsmallerairportswheremightnotfeasible.AdditionallyairframeoptionconnectingsecondarycitiesacrossAtlantic.Onelimitingfactorsomerestrictuse noisyfavorquieterconsideredrelativelyloudcomparedmodernmodelshoweversizenotexcessivelynoisy

Organizations Included in this History
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