Delta Air Lines has announced it plans to operate a nonstop flight from Atlanta to Delhi as part of a new strategic partnership with IndiGo, India’s largest airline. As IndiGo cozies up to a trio of SkyTeam carriers and prepares to launch longhaul flights, this relationship has the power to disrupt the dominance of Gulf carriers in the Indian subcontinent.
Delta Plans Atlanta–Delhi Flight, Expands India Reach Through New IndiGo Partnership
Delta Air Lines is once again setting its sights on India. As part of a new strategic partnership with Indian low-cost giant IndiGo, Delta has revealed plans to launch nonstop service between Atlanta (ATL) and Delhi (DEL), a route that would mark its return to the Indian market after a multi-year hiatus. The flight would be 7,945 miles but might be one of the longest flights in the world in terms of duration.
But don’t expect this new route to launch overnight.
Delta Plans Atlanta–Delhi Route…Eventually
Last year, Delta expressed its desire to return to Air India in 2026, and now Delta has publicly stated its intention to inaugurate nonstop service from its Atlanta megahub to Delhi, which would mark a bold move if the Russian airspace closure continues. While no launch date has been announced and Delta’s current A350-900 jets could likely make the journey, it appears the timing is contingent on the delivery of new Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, which Delta is not expected to receive until 2026 at the earliest. Travelers hoping for a 2025 launch will likely need to wait longer…
Delta previously operated a New York JFK–Mumbai route, which it axed during the pandemic. The proposed Atlanta–Delhi service represents a more ambitious and arguably better-aligned route for Delta’s current strategy. Atlanta offers broader domestic feed, and with a next-gen long-haul aircraft like the A350-1000, the economics of such a lengthy route are vastly improved.
When it does launch, the ATL–DEL route would place Delta in direct competition with United Airlines, which operates to Delhi nonstop from Newark (EWR), and American Airlines, which operates to Delhi nonstop from New York (JFK).
A Strategic Partnership With IndiGo
The Atlanta–Dehli plan comes amid a newly announced partnership between IndiGo and the transatlantic joint venture of Delta, Air France-KLM, and Virgin Atlantic. To be clear: this is not a joint venture with IndiGo, nor does it involve any equity stake…at least at this time. Rather, this is a strategic collaboration aimed at boosting connectivity between India, Europe, the UK, and North America.
Key elements of the partnership include:
- Expanded codesharing between IndiGo and Delta/Air France-KLM/Virgin Atlantic
- The partnership between Air France-KLM and IndiGo already exists
- Seamless connections to more than 75 destinations across India via IndiGo
- Coordinated flight schedules in hubs like Paris (CDG), Amsterdam (AMS), and London Heathrow (LHR)
- Future plans for baggage interlining and loyalty program benefits
For Delta, this deal fills a critical gap in India connectivity. While United can rely on Star Alliance partner Air India (at least theoretically), Delta’s prior attempt to partner with Jet Airways collapsed when that carrier went under in 2019. Now, IndiGo provides a far more stable and far-reaching domestic India network.
This partnership also serves as a counterweight to the Gulf carriers, which have long dominated U.S.–India itineraries through Doha (DOH), Dubai (DXB), and Abu Dhabi (AUH). With this new arrangement, passengers flying Delta, Air France, KLM, or Virgin Atlantic will be able to book more seamless itineraries to smaller Indian cities like Jaipur, Kochi, Ahmedabad, or Pune without transiting through the Gulf. That said, many will continue to choose the Gulf carriers for one-stop service until IndiGo builds up its network to SkyTeam capitals in Europe.
CONCLUSION
Delta’s plan to return to India via a new Atlanta–Delhi route is ambitious, but realistic only once the airline takes delivery of the A350-1000. In the meantime, its new partnership with IndiGo provides much-needed connectivity and competitiveness in the growing Indian market.
While not a joint venture in this stage, the partnership offers meaningful benefits for travelers and gives Delta a fighting chance at reclaiming relevance in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets.
Would you choose Delta/IndiGo to India over a Gulf carrier?
as discussed elsewhere, the most capable A350-900s have about the same range w/ 275 passengers as the 35K have with about 340 passengers.
DL has about a dozen of the most capable 359s in its fleet now.
The only question is whether DL wants to wait for the better economics of the 35K to start the route or start it with the 359 and transition it to the 35K later.
Given that Bastian said a date for the new ATL-DEL service will be announced in the near future, I suspect that they intend to start the route this winter. US to India is one route where they will have no problems filling it with six months notice; India flights do well in the winter so it could be another counter-cyclical international route to DL’s presence in NE Asia at ICN and HND.
It is also unlikely that DL would tip its hand on starting a competitive route a year in advance. This isn’t like Riyadh where there will be very few foreign airlines that are not part of the Saudi friendship fold, as DL is.
the bigger part of this is that DL will be flying further than either AA or UA can do with a viable number of passengers, using an airplane that will make DL the largest US carrier to India on the first flight, and also moving its historic service from BOM – where most of its 30 years of service to India have been – to DEL.
This could also be a play to force UA to use a bunch of its new densely configured 787s to restart the nearly half dozen India routes UA is not flying due to Russia airspace restrictions so DL can grow more and deeper in E. Asia.
“the bigger part of this is that DL will be flying further than either AA or UA can do with a viable number of passengers,”
You can keep repeating the same wrong talking points about Load Factor like you did on OMAAT, but they’re still wrong.
United already flies routes longer than ORD-DEL today (with the required routing avoiding Russia) with their 789s at capacity. They could start ORD-DEL tomorrow if they thought it was useful to do so but they choose to fly it from NYC with the greatest demand (as it is to nearly anywhere in the world from the US).
AA’s new high-J 789 can fly DFW-BNE at a full payload, that’s longer than ORD-DEL with the required routing considered and the same distance as CLT-DEL with the required routing.
And these two statements about AA and UA completely ignore the 77W capabilities which has also flown to India for both carriers with great range capability.
The A350 is a great plane. There’s no question there. But there’s no competitive range/capacity advantage on ATL-DEL (aside from the inherent power of the ATL Hub) for DEL when AA and UA already have planes (or are getting more of them) that can fly from their interior hubs today. I guess the ability to fly from ATL while DFW-DEL isn’t doable at full capacity could be considered an advantage? I’ll give you that.
There’s no question the A35k is a great plane for Delta but it’s not providing any competitive Load Factor advantage over the AA/UA 789/77W to Delhi like you’re implying.
Both DFW-BNE and IAH-SYD are farther or equivalent than ORD or CLT to DEL and both are already flown at full capacity or will be with AA’s new 789. And there are certainly other examples in United’s network.
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=CLT-lhr-bbu-rzv-gyd-del;+jfk-lhr-bbu-rzv-gyd-del;+iah-syd;+ord-lhr-bbu-rzv-gyd-del;+dfw-bne;
Using the AA JFK-DEL routing last night to show that the distance required is easily doable by planes already at AA and UA from CLT, PHL, IAD, or ORD on routes that are already flying.
UA flew ORD-DEL – which is still shorter than ATL-DEL will be – and they cancelled it because of performance issues.
AA and UA”s 789s – and the same for any operator – cannot fly 275 passengers – which is the minimum number DL offers or will offer on an A350 and fly the same distance.
QF’s 789s have 39 fewer seats than DL’s 275 seat 359 and AA’s high J 789s have 30 fewer seats.
reducing seats on an aircraft only works if you can sell the greater number of premium seats at decent enough fares and all fares at levels high enough to cover costs.
India does not have an endless supply of premium traffic; it does generate lots of volume at low fares
the 777-300ER burns much more fuel and is weight restricted on DEL to the US. that is why UA didn’t use theirs for long and AA has dropped their 77Ws which had the same number of seats (=/-1) as DL’s original build 359s
Quit arguing, learn to do an apples to apples comparison, and admit that DL will do something that AA and UA cannot do.
The A350 in even the 359 configuration for DL is a more capable aircraft than AA and UA’s 787s.
359 > 789
Another loss for AA
“return to Air India” should say “return to India” instead, no?
“While United can rely on Star Alliance partner Air India (at least theoretically)…”
LOL!