Delta shakes up trans-Atlantic routes
By Jerome Greer Chandler Fri Sep 22, 2017
One of the United States’ ‘Big Three’ international carriers, Delta Air Lines, is shaking up its trans-Atlantic routes, adding some new runs and lopping off others.
USA Today reports that Delta is axing flights to Moscow and Stockholm. At the same time, the carrier is suspending year-round Newark-Amsterdam as well as Philadelphia-London Heathrow flights. Philadelphia-Paris is disappearing too.
In the Pacific, Delta will end flights to Guam by early January 2018.
On the plus side, the Atlanta-based megacarrier plans to start flying from Los Angeles to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam June 16, 2018. It will deploy Boeing 777-200LRs on both runs.
While LAX is one of Delta’s two West Coast hubs (the other is Seattle/Tacoma), Indianapolis is merely a strong spoke, an O&D (origin and destination) airport for the airline. That spoke will be stronger still with new nonstop Indianapolis - Paris service that’s scheduled to begin May 24, 2018. Orlando – Amsterdam flights take off March 30.
Out of Delta’s New York John F. Kennedy gateway there will be a pair of new nonstops: JFK-Ponta Delgada in the Azores is seasonal and runs from May 24 through September 3; Kennedy – Lagos, Nigeria starts up March 24 with a trio of weekly A330 departures.
Read: Delta may base new bombardier jets in New York, LA.
Delta’s prime 1,000 departures-per-day Atlanta hub is not left out of the equation. The hometown airline lays on a seasonal 767 nonstop to Lisbon.
The service begins May 24 and is scheduled to end September 4. The window renders this one essentially a seasonal affair, one best suited for leisure travelers rather than business flyers, that will give travelers from more than 150 US destinations a one-stop connection to Portugal.
Finally, delta is beefing up Detroit – Paris Charles de Gaulle service. As of May 16, there will be a third nonstop DTW departure on the route.
By the numbers, Delta and its Delta Connection carriers field flights to some 315 destinations in 54 countries on six continents.
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