Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) will reduce its B717-200 fleet from the current 88 to 30-45 over the next two years, the airline said in an internal memo to its pilots cited by Forbes.

The fleet downsizing will lead to the closures of B717-200 bases at New York JFK (where A220-100s and A320-200s will replace them) and Minneapolis St. Paul International (A320s and B737s). The remaining B717s will be based out of Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson and Detroit Metropolitan.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Delta's eighty-eight B717-200s are 18.7 years old on average and seat up to 110 passengers each. The airline owns 25 of the aircraft and leases the remaining 63 from Boeing Capital. The aircraft are deployed predominantly on regional domestic routes, with just a single international service, from Atlanta to Montréal Trudeau.

Delta is one of only four operators of the B717-200s globally and by far the largest of them, with more than a half of all units of the type ever built in its fleet.

The airline previously said it would retire all B777-200s and MD-90s by the end of 2020, and all MD-88s by the end of July 2020.