Delta Air Lines will shortly announce new service from Atlanta (ATL) to Marrakesh (RAK), challenging United Airlines directly on one of its newest international routes.
New Atlanta – Marrakesh Route For Delta Air Lines
First rumored by aviation insider JonNYC and confirmed in a Delta memo reviewed by Live And Let’s Fly, we have no further details yet except that the route will launch…aircraft type, schedule, and frequency have not been confirmed. That said, I think it is a safe bet that Delta will use a 767-300 and operate the route three times per week during the winter season.
DL: rumors going around of a possible long haul route announcement Friday.
I know the exact route being announced, ATL- to a Non-Southern Africa destination.
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) February 26, 2025 at 6:56 PM
The addition of Marrakesh will be Delta’s sixth destination in Africa, including:
- Accra (ACC)
- Cape Town (CPT)
- Dakar (DSS)
- Johannesburg (JNB)
- Lagos (LOS)
Delta Challenges United In Morocco
The new route is an interesting choice for Delta, almost a tit-for-tat for United’s new addition of Dakar later this year (both carriers also serve Accra, Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Lagos).
Neither Delta or United have partners in Marrakesh while Royal Air Maroc, an American Airlines partner and member of the oneworld alliance, has a hub there.
Is there sufficient traffic to justify this leisure route? Probably not during the summer…it gets excruciatingly hot there. But next winter? Probably. And Marrakesh is doing a good job of building up its hotel infrastructure with new properties like the Park Hyatt.
United never disclosed how well its Marrakesh route did, but it is still in the schedule…it must have at least done well enough to justify a return next winter.
CONCLUSION
Delta is launching service to Marrakesh, with an imminent official announcement. The new route will challenge United, which was the first US carrier to launch nonstop service to RAK last winter.
I’ll update this post once more details about the new service are made available.
Laughing as U.S. airlines add these International destinations like a kid in a candy store. They are about to get their butts handed to them. Few have any desire now to travel to the U.S. for anything. And U.S. travelers will soon learn they are not lovingly welcomed in many places.
I’m sure though that this summer Moscow and Pyongyang flights would do quite well.
U.S. travelers have been unwelcome abroad for years, but that doesn’t stop them. The rest of the world has been laughing at Americans for decades; it’s nothing new
I think it’s fair to say we aint seen nothing yet…
Is Delta not embarrassed to be so blatantly envious of United’s creatively expanding network? From Papeete to Brisbane to Melbourne and now Marrakesh it’s a classic case of penis envy. How much of this is driven by the Delta frequent fliers who don’t like feeling like they’ve invested in an inferior frequent flyer program?
I don’t really feel like this is anything creative coming from Delta but I guess they could be like AA who doesn’t even fly to Africa and looks more like a mainly domestic carrier. Still Delta is the definition of vanilla
It honestly starting to feel like an envious move from Delta, they could have gone Nairobi. Daesalam or Seychelles but noo just following on United new routes. So much for creativity on their part.