The resumption of this route means the SkyTeam member has seven routes to Heathrow this summer, with Salt Lake City joining Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York JFK, and Seattle.

Salt Lake City is Delta's fourth-busiest hub this summer, according to data experts Cirium. The carrier is highly dominant at the airport, controlling about three-quarters of outbound flights. Southwest is number-two, with about 7% of departures.

Salt Lake City is back

After a 27-month absence, Delta will resume Salt Lake City to Heathrow on June 6th, with the first journey to the US on the 7th. It'll operate for the remainder of the aviation summer season, with the last flight home on October 29th.

The 4,866-mile (7,831km) route will be Delta's longest route to the UK. It'll use four-class, 223-seat A330-200s, with 34 Delta One suites, 21 seats in Premium Select, 24 in Comfort+, and just 144 in Main Cabin. The schedule is as follows, with all times local:

• Salt Lake City to Heathrow: DL50, 20:50-13:30+1
• Heathrow to Salt Lake City: DL51, 15:20-18:50

As Heathrow isn't much of a SkyTeam airport, it is not surprising that it follows the return of Amsterdam and Paris CDG, two major SkyTeam hubs. Amsterdam resumed in mid-2021, while CDG will take off in a week, on March 7th. Unlike London, they're both year-round.

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Salt Lake to Heathrow: a summary

Delta began the long route in April 2016 in part because of its relationship with Virgin Atlantic. Initially year-round, it operated once-daily during the summer, reducing to four-weekly in winter. It soon became summer-seasonal, ending in October 2017 before operating April-October 2018.

Sure enough, it returned to year-round, recommencing in April 2019 and operating through the winter until the pandemic stopped it – and most other long-haul routes – in its tracks. It is likely to return to year-round service at some point.

An 87% load factor in 2019

According to T-100 data available via Cirium, Delta carried 77,696 passengers on the non-stop route in 2019. After Portland (Oregon), it was the airline's second-smallest London market.

In 2019, Salt Lake had a seat load factor (SLF) of 86.5%, helped by being operated between April and December and therefore mainly in the core summer. The SLF was marginally above Delta's average at Heathrow (83.6%), although this says nothing of fare performance.

Booking data shows that approximately 47% of passengers were local, traveling only between Salt Lake and Heathrow, while around 44% transited over the Utah hub. Heathrow to/from Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and San Diego were the most significant origins and destinations.

68 Heathrow departures

In the seven days starting June 7th, Delta will have 68 departures from Heathrow (nearly ten daily), down only slightly over the same week in 2019. If Virgin is included, the pair have 194 US departures, down by just one (!).

Delta's Heathrow network in the June week is as follows, with the B767-400ER on every flight except Salt Lake:

• Atlanta: 2x daily
• JFK: 2x daily
• Detroit: 12x weekly
• Boston: 1x daily
• Minneapolis: 1x daily
• Salt Lake City: 1x daily
• Seattle: 1x daily

Will you be flying Salt Lake-Heathrow? Let us know in the comments.