Australia and Japan in 2019 will see the arrival of Delta Air Lines’ flagship A350-900s and refurbished Boeing 777s featuring the Delta One suite and the airline’s Premium Select premium economy cabin.
The addition of five routes will mean all trans-Pacific services will have the two products once the changes have been fully implemented next year.
The US carrier decided to keep its B777s at nine abreast, instead of the unpopular 10-abreast, to give its customers wider seats.
READ Delta expands premium economy across its international fleet.
The airline does not yet have a date for the enhanced B777-200LR service between Los Angeles and Sydney but changes to Japanese routes will begin in November with B77-200ER flights between Minneapolis-St Paul and Tokyo-Haneda.
Atlanta-Tokyo, Narita will see a refurbished B777-200ER in March when Seattle-Tokyo, Narita and Los Angeles-Tokyo, Haneda will get the airline’s flagship A350s.
Delta is refurbishing is refurbishing all eight of its 777-200ER and all ten of its 777-200LR aircraft and expects to have taken delivery of 13 A350s by the end of 2019.
Introduced in 2017, the business suite has sliding privacy doors normally associated with first class but starting to find their way into business class through this and products such as Qatar’s Qsuite.
There will be 28 suites on the 777s giving each passenger a private space with an 18-inch in-flight entertainment screen and 24-inch wide lie-flat seat with plenty of space for laptops and gizmos.
The 48 Premium Select seats are 19 inches wide and have a 28-inch seat pitch. These come with a 13.3-inch IFE screen, adjustable head and footrests and elevated service.
The US carrier currently offers the Delta One suite and Delta Premium Select on nonstop service from its Detroit hub to Tokyo-Narita, Seoul-Incheon, Shanghai, Beijing and Amsterdam as well as from Los Angeles to Shanghai and from Atlanta to Seoul-Incheon.
Recent upgrades to the Delta One in-flight experience include new chef-designed Delta One menus curated by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo for flights from LAX, refreshed TUMI amenity kits with Kiehl’s products, and an Alessi-designed collection of service ware.
