Yesterday it was reported that Delta Air Lines had filed a schedule to serve a transcontinental route with their new Airbus A220-100 from June next year. The route will operate from Atlanta to Seattle and will launch on June 8th, 2020.Delta’s new route filing was noted by AirlineRoute on Twitter:
The route would see the A220 in the air for well over four hours, making it the longest A220 route to be scheduled by Delta Air Lines. Although they are already planning some relatively long services, this is the first truly transcon route, going from an east coast state to a west coast one with the type.
A good choice?
While we can all sing the praises of the comfort and efficiency of the A220 aircraft, this particular route schedule raises some interesting questions too. Delta is effectively putting a rather small plane on what should be a very popular route.
The route is currently served by Alaska Airlines, as well as by Delta. Both currently use Boeing 737s for the route, which offers significantly more seats than the A220. As a popular transcon route, the choice of the A220 might seem a little odd… so why have Delta done it?
The first option is that this is a repositioning flight. It might be that it just fits their schedule to operate the route in order to deliver the crew and aircraft to Seattle from Atlanta at that particular time. They will still operate multiple other services each day with their 737s, so overall the drop in capacity will not have a massive impact.
The second possibility is that this is something of a test, of both the aircraft’s capabilities and the passenger experience, on a longer route. The hop from Atlanta to Seattle will be Delta’s longest A220 route, clocking in at five hours 20 outbound, and around four hours 40 on the way back. At 2,182 miles, its well within the range capabilities of the A220, but will be Delta’s longest route with the type to date. Perhaps Delta are checking things out before jumping into five hour plus regional routes with the model?
The final suggestion for the launch of this route is that it’s an opportunity to bring the A220 to Delta’s biggest hub. Passengers in Atlanta have been bemused by the lack of A220 in previous route announcements, so perhaps Delta simply wants to show off their latest investment on their home turf.
Too long for an A220??
Earlier this month, Delta revealed a number of new routes for the A220-100, due to begin service in mid-August. These included New York to Houston, as well as four routes from Seattle to Denver, Fairbanks and Kansas City.
Previously, the airline had reported A220 routes serving New York to Tampa, Fort Myers, West Palm Beach and New Orleans, as well as from Salt Lake City to Seattle, Las Vegas, Orange County and San Francisco. There are also routes from Seattle to Portland and San Francisco, as well as Detroit to Austin to look forward to.
But, nestled into this list of short-haul hops were a number of longer routes that compete with Atlanta to Seattle service in terms of duration. One such route, published in early July, was Seattle to Milwaukee, which clocks in at four hours to four hours and 45 minutes, depending on the direction. Announced even earlier than that was Salt Lake City to JFK, a good four hour or more flight, as well as Salt Lake City to Atlanta, which is around three and a half hours.
So, all this excitement about Delta’s first transcon route really isn’t necessary. Although it’s their first major hub to major hub to be operated by the A220, it’s not an unusually long duration for the aircraft, and should be comfortable for passengers too. airBaltic recently told us their plans to operate the A220 on a seven-hour flight to Dubai, so Delta is not alone in testing the water on longer routes with the little plane.
Whether Delta is scheduling this as a bit of a test, for repositioning services or simply to bring the good people of Atlanta some fabulous A220 action remains to be seen. The service is already popping up on their booking portal, so we hope it sticks around for next summer so we can all enjoy some A220 goodness on our hop across the states.