Is Delta Air Lines competitive with the B737-900ER?

Yesterday came the press release confirming Delta's order for 100 B737-900ER.

These will delivered between 2013 and 2018 and there is no mentioning of a possibility to switch to the reengined variant.
In the press release Delta stresses a fuel burn advantage of 15-20% against the B757, B767 and the A320. If fuel is responsible for about 40% of your cash operating costs, this is big and results in 6-8% lower COC's. But to be competitive, Delta has to look what the competitors will do, especially the low cost carriers, which have lower COC's to begin with.
Virgin America and jetblue have ordered the A320neo

Delta's 737-900ER order

Yesterday came the news that Delta Air Lines will purchase 100 B737-900ER to begin the replacement cycle of it's narrowbody fleet. Until there is an official press release from the airline, it is rumours, but let us assume that the information is accurate.
Scott Hamilton is certain that Delta will have conversion rights to switch to the reengined version (the B737-9 as it stands now). If true, this little detail could hurt Boeing

A320 vs. B737-800 Fuel Burn

There is the never-ending "war of words" between Airbus and Boeing of which aircraft is the more fuel efficient one, and, since the launch of the A320neo, if the A320neo would be more fuel efficient and if yes, by what margin. Further complicating, Boeing meanwhile claims, that it's yet-to-be-named reengined B737 would have the same advantage in terms of fuel efficiency as the current generations of these two narrowbodies have. And as even Boeing does not seem to know how the exact configuration of the reengined B737 looks like, this claim seems (at least) a little bit premature.
As I tried to lay out in an earlier posting, much depends on what you want to compare:  fuel burn per trip of fuel burn per passenger.
The official documents provided by the manufacturers

Shifting center of gravity

Looking at the regional distribution of A320neo sales we get aware of the change in aviation.
South and Southeast Asia is where the coming aviation markets are - almost 550 A320neo are ordered for these markets when we count the 78 for Jetstar also for that region. And there should be more to come: China did not order the A320neo so far, but I guess we can bet on an order sooner or later.
Next in the regional distribution

Embraer 2000nm 5 abreast

It is no secret that Embraer looks into building a CSeries rival with an own 5 abreast aircraft. But as Bombardier's CSeries will offer a maximum range of 2950nm and the wing is designed for that range, Embraer reportedly is looking for a range closer to 2000nm, but thinks about a little larger aircraft. Scott Hamilton wondered in a recent blog entry how Embraer could achieve to build a lighter aircraft, as Ronald Epstein, the BoA analyst suggested. Here is a quick explanation: