It’s common for pilots to have a good time their retirement flights, usually by bringing their household alongside for that big day. Nevertheless, one retiring Delta captain reportedly celebrated his retirement in a approach that I’ve by no means heard of earlier than.
Delta captain charters A330, flies mates & household to Hawaii
In keeping with studies, a Delta Airbus A330-900neo captain named Keith Rosenkranz is at present celebrating his retirement, after working on the airline since 1991. He celebrated this accomplishment in a really particular approach — he didn’t simply convey alongside his household alongside as passengers on the flight, however as a substitute he chartered the entire plane for a one night time get together in Hawaii.
Rosenkranz lives in Texas, and seemingly chartered the two-year-old A330-900neo with the license plate N411DX for this particular journey. In keeping with flight monitoring software program:
- On Tuesday, February 27, 2024, the jet flew as flight quantity DL8871, first from Dallas (DFW) to Los Angeles (LAX) in a flight time of 3hr18min, after which from Los Angeles to Kona (KOA) in a flight time of 5hr20min
- On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, the jet is returning with the identical routing as flight quantity DL8872; the airplane is at present within the air, flying from Kona to Los Angeles, so it can get again to Dallas late tonight
For what it’s price, the plane landed in Kona at 2:28PM yesterday, and took off once more this morning at 9:02AM, so it was a fast go to to Hawaii! Beneath you may see the takeoff video from when the flight was departing Los Angeles yesterday.
What an unbelievable get together
Admittedly we’re working with pretty restricted particulars right here, however the information try. The flight has flight numbers that correspond to non-scheduled flights, and A330-900neos don’t ordinarily fly both of those routes. I’m curious why the airplane made a cease in Los Angeles, although, relatively than flying nonstop from Dallas to Hawaii.
Clearly there are much more questions than solutions, and hopefully we study extra. I’m significantly curious what number of family and friends members the captain took with him on this journey. Did he simply take a small variety of individuals, or did he fill the entire cabin?
Then in fact there’s the price of this journey, which is little doubt within the a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars}. We are able to joke that the revenue sharing checks at Delta should be good, although there are a number of different methods to make sense of this:
- I think about Delta gave the captain pretty much as good of a deal because it may on this journey, given the variety of years he spent flying for the airline
- If he had sufficient individuals coming alongside, perhaps everybody chipped in for this get together; if he introduced alongside a few a whole bunch family and friends members and cut up the fee, this wouldn’t really be wildly costly
- Whereas pilots are in fact very nicely paid these days, most aren’t going to spring for a celebration like this; perhaps he values peak experiences greater than others, or it’s potential he invested rather well, has household cash, and many others.
Backside line
A retiring Delta captain reportedly chartered an Airbus A330-900neo, and made his final flight a constitution flight for family and friends to Hawaii. Whereas a small celebration is regular for a retiring pilot, that is really unprecedented. Hopefully we study extra particulars in regards to the logistics concerned, as a result of I’m positive many people aviation geeks would like to know extra.
Within the meantime, congrats to Captain Rosenkranz on an incredible 30+ 12 months profession at Delta, and a heck of a celebration to kick off retirement!
