Delta has outlined its international long-haul rebuild through summer 2021. The airline is planning to focus on its top destinations. However, some more niche destinations are currently not scheduled to resume. This includes cities like Mumbai, Osaka, and Dusseldorf. Now, Delta has outlined its transpacific and transatlantic routes. Latin American operations have not been revealed yet.
The airline has outlined two separate schedules thus far. This includes the IATA winter schedule from October 25th through March 27th, 2021. The summer schedule will run from March 28th through October 30th, 2021.
Transpacific flights
Delta is planning to serve core markets in Asia through its hubs– including Seattle.
Atlanta (ATL)
- Tokyo-Haneda (HND): 4x a week in winter, one daily in summer
- Seoul-Incheon (ICN): plus 5x a week in winter, one daily in summer
Detroit (DTW)
- HND: 3x weekly in winter, one daily in summer
- Nagoya (NGO): none in winter; 3x weekly in the summer
- ICN: daily in winter and summer
- Shanghai-Pudong (PVG); plus 2x weekly in the winter; one daily in the summer
Los Angeles (LAX)
- HND: 3x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
- PVG: none in winter; one daily in summer
- Sydney (SYD): plus 3x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
Minneapolis (MSP)
- HND: none in winter; 5x weekly in summer
- ICN: none in winter; 5x weekly in summer starting in April 2021
Seattle (SEA)
- HND: 4x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
- ICN: plus 4x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
- PVG: plus 2x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
- Beijing: none in winter; one daily in summer
Portland (PDX):
- HND: none in winter; 5x weekly in summer
Honolulu (HNL)
- HND: 4x weekly starting in December; one daily in the summer
Seoul (ICN):
- Manila (MNL): 4x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
This is a pretty healthy transpacific network that is not too far off from Delta's 2019 transpacific network. The core focus here is to partner hubs like Shanghai (China Eastern) and Seoul (Korean Air) that can offer passengers further connections across East Asia. Down Under, Delta is maintaining its LAX-SYD flight. Depending on how Virgin Australia's restructuring turns out, there may be connecting opportunities, or that partnership could come to an end.
Transatlantic flights
Delta is well-known in the transatlantic market. With service out of its core hubs and more to Europe, the carrier has plans to focus on major business and leisure markets. One of the biggest winners compared to summer 2020 is New York-JFK.
Atlanta (ATL)
- Amsterdam (AMS): two daily in winter; three daily in summer
- Paris-Charles De Gaulle (CDG): one daily in winter; two daily in summer
- Frankfurt (FRA): 4x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
- Johannesburg (JNB): 3x weekly in winter; 5x weekly in summer [starting December 13th] Delta is operating this route as a triangle routing with a stop in Cape Town (CPT) on the return from Johannesburg. Delta is selling tickets to and from Cape Town, but not solely between Cape Town and Johannesburg.
- London-Heathrow (LHR): one daily in winter; two daily in summer
- Lagos (LOS): up to one daily in winter; 4x weekly in summer [resumes in September]
- Munich (MUC): 3x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
- Barcelona (BCN): none in winter; one daily in summer
- Dublin (DUB): none in winter; one in summer
- Rome-Fiumicino (FCO): none in winter; one daily in summer
- Madrid (MAD): none in winter; one daily in summer
- Stuttgart (STR): none in winter; 5x weekly in summer
Boston (BOS)
- AMS: one daily in winter and summer
- CDG: 4x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in November]
- LHR: 5x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in September]
- DUB: none in winter; one daily in summer
Detroit (DTW)
- AMS: one daily in winter; three daily in summer
- CDG: one daily in summer and winter
- FRA: none in winter; one daily in summer
- LHR: none in winter; one daily in summer
New York (JFK)
- Accra (ACC): up to one daily in winter; 5x weekly in summer [resumes in September]
- AMS: one daily in winter; two daily in summer
- BCN: 5x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in September]
- Brussels (BRU): 5x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in October]
- CDG: one daily in winter; two daily in summer
- Dakar (DSS): 3x weekly in winter and summer
- DUB: 5x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in October]
- FCO: 5x weekly in winter; up to two daily in summer [resumes in September]
- FRA: 5x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in October]
- LHR: one daily in winter; two daily in summer
- MAD: 5x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in September]
- Milan-Malpensa (MXP): 5x weekly in winter; one daily in summer
- Tel Aviv (TLV): up to two daily in winter; two daily in summer
- Zurich (ZRH): 5x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in October]
- Athens (ATH): none in winter; up to two daily in summer
- Edinburgh (EDI): none in winter; one daily in summer
- Reykjavik-Keflavik (KEF): none in winter; 5x weekly in summer
- Lisbon (LIS): none in winter; one daily in summer
- LOS: none in winter; 3x weekly in summer
- Nice (NCE): none in winter; one daily in summer
- Venice (VCE): none in winter; one daily in summer
Los Angeles (LAX)
- CDG: one daily in summer; none in winter
Minneapolis (MSP)
- AMS: none in winter; two daily in summer
- CDG: none in winter; one daily in summer
- LHR: none in winter; one daily in summer
Seattle (SEA)
- AMS: one daily in winter and summer
- CDG: 4x weekly in winter; one daily in summer [resumes in October]
Salt Lake City (SLC)
- AMS: none in winter; one daily in summer
- CDG: none in winter; one daily in summer
Raleigh-Durham (RDU)
- CDG: none in winter; 5x weekly in summer
Portland (PDX)
- AMS: none in winter; 4x weekly in summer
Cincinnati (CVG)
- CDG: none in winter; 4x weekly in summer
Delta is taking a two-pronged approach here. On the one hand, much of the transatlantic flying is centered around partner hubs in London-Heathrow (Virgin Atlantic), Amsterdam (KLM), and Paris (Air France). Simultaneously, Delta is also targeting key business markets like Frankfurt and leisure destinations like Venice, Nice, Madrid, Barcelona, and others.
Axing some destinations for now
The updated schedule now is missing a few cities. No decision has been made on the resumption of Mumbai. At the same time, Osaka, Dusseldorf, Prague, Copenhagen, and Berlin are some destinations where Delta has not outlined a return.
These cities can all be served with a connection on a partner, however, so passengers can still access them. The convenience of a nonstop, unfortunately, will not be available.
This schedule is not too surprising. International travel lags domestic in terms of a rebound. Closed borders also do not help Delta when it comes to getting passengers to fill its planes. Middle seats will be blocked on these flights until at least January.
There is no word, currently, on the airline's plans for Latin America. The situation continues to evolve in key markets like Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Brazil. So, for now, Delta is likely focusing on the markets where it has historically been quite strong.
What do you make of Delta's long-haul rebuilding? Will you fly any of these routes? Let us know in the comments!