Delta announces new Europe flights as US carriers beef up summer schedules

US carriers are continuing to draw up next summer’s trans-Atlantic battlelines with Delta Air Lines Thursday announcing new routes and additional frequencies to Europe. The move follows American Airlines’ announcement Wednesday of expanded European services that include new routes to Germany, Croatia and Italy. American and Hawaiian also underscored the competitive pressures US carriers are facing in the tough Chinese market with both suspending flights to China. READ American to cut Asian routes, boost Europe Delta will launch it’s first nonstop flight from Tampa Bay, Florida, to Amsterdam to bring the number of services it flies between the US and Dutch city to 11. It is its second from Florida after the launch of Orlando-Amsterdam earlier this year. The US carrier will also expand to daily flights services from Los Angeles to both Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle from June 16, 2019. The LA to Paris service will be the third to the French capital to be operated using upgraded Boeing 777 aircraft, featuring the Delta One suites and Delta Premium Select, which will also feature on select flights from Atlanta and Minneapolis from December 13. Delta is also expanding capacity from New York-JFK with the launch of second daily nonstop flights to both Paris and Israel’s Tel Aviv. This brings the number of flights operated to Paris by Delta and partners Air France, KLM and Alitalia to seven a day. Both services will use A330-300 aircraft with lie-flat beds in business class and the airline’s recently upgraded main cabin meal service. The Tel Aviv flight is a daytime departure timed to complement to the existing night-time departure. The airline said its seasonal summer trans-Atlantic schedule to Europe from its JFK hub would return, including the only nonstop service by a US carrier from JFK to the Azores, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Berlin. “Delta is putting great focus on our international expansion and Europe is an important part of this,” Delta’s vice president — trans-Atlantic Roberto Ioriatti said in a statement. “Our new Tampa Bay flight and extra capacity on other key routes from our LAX and JFK hubs offer our customers more choice and convenient connections throughout the United States and Europe in connection with our partners.”