Delta Air Lines is adding or resuming a handful of new longhaul routes to its Los Angeles (LAX) hub, taking a chance on what has always been a very competitive market.
New Longhaul Delta Air Lines Routes Added At LAX
Anticipating a record season of transatlantic demand in 2023, Delta has announced the resumption of two routes, including service from Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR) and Paris (CDG). Delta has attempted both routes before, but this marks the first resumption of transatlantic service from LAX since the pandemic began.
New service to London Heathrow will begin March 25, 2023, and utilize an Airbus A330-900neo. This route has not operated since 2015. Delta will operate this route in cooperation with Virgin Atlantic, which offers up to three daily flights between London and Los Angeles. American, British Airways, and United Airlines also serve this route.
New service to Paris will begin on May 8, 2023, and utilize an Airbus A330-900neo. The service last operated in 2020. Air France offers up to three flights per day, but the only other operator on this route is Air Tahiti Nui.
Earlier this year, Delta announced a new service between LAX and Tahiti (PPT), set to begin later this year. Effective December 17, 2022, Delta will operate this route three times per week utilizing a Boeing 767-300ER. Air France and Air Tahiti Nui also operate this route.
Furthermore, Delta has recently announced the resumption of its service between LAX and Tokyo Haneda (HND) starting on October 30, 2022. Service will initially resume 3x weekly and move to daily service on December 1, 2022. This service is contingent upon Japan re-opening as planned in October.
Finally, Delta has announced new service between Los Angeles and Panama City, Panama (PTY). That service will launch on December 18 and operate once weekly. A Boeing 757 will be utilized. Delta will compete with Copa on the route.
Delta has invested billions of dollars in terminal construction at LAX and will shortly unveil the final touches on its new Terminal 3 facility. Already, the new SkyClub in Terminal 3 is open and one of the finest airport lounges in the airport.
Other New Delta 2023 Transatantlic Routes
Other new routes that Delta will debut in 2023 include:
- New York (JFK) ⇄ Berlin (BER)
- New York (JKK) ⇄ Geneva (GVA)
- New York (JFK) ⇄ London Gatwick (LGW)
- New York (JFK) ⇄ Stockholm (ARN)
- Atlanta (ATL) ⇄ Dusseldorf (DUS)
- Atlanta (ATL) ⇄ Edinburgh (EDI)
- Atlanta (ATL) ⇄ Stuttgart (STR)
The two new routes to German secondary cities are also exciting, particularly as most of my German side of the family lives in the Stuttgart area and no U.S. carrier currently serves either Dusseldorf or Stuttgart. It is not clear to me why Delta is operating a London Gatwick flight, other than to compete with JetBlue or due to its own slot limitations at London Heathrow.
CONCLUSION
Delta calls itself “LAX’s largest global airline” and boasts that it “prides itself on providing Angelenos with unparalleled global access.” Pursuant to that claim, later this year Delta is resuming service to Tokyo Haneda and launching service to Tahiti. Next year, Delta will add service to London and Paris. While LAX is a cutthroat market, Delta hopes that it can pull ahead of American and United through route additions, not cuts…a strategy that makes a lot of sense to me…
image: Delta Air Lines
The routes to Germany are not new. Delta flew ATL-Stuttgart since the 1980s or 1990s and this is a resumption. Same with Dusseldorf, though it only started flying there from Atlanta within the last 10 years or so. It’s nice to see that they’re back.
JFK-GVA is also a resumption – it last flew that in the 1990s. Exciting to see these resumptions.
All the JFK flights are resumptions. DL has flown JFKLGW too, like 10 years ago or so.
I’d argue that the routes are new but the destinations are not. ATL is not LAX.
Pretty much all of these routes have been flown before. Perhaps I was mistaken that JFKGVA wasnt nonstop. But yes, all of these other routes, for the most part, have been flown before.
DL never flew JFK-GVA nonstop. It did operate JFK-ZRH-GVA when it first acquired Pan Am’s TATL operation at JFK in the early 1990s using an A310.
Good to know. I knew that Delta flew to Geneva, but wasnt 100% sure if it was nonstop at any point or if it made a stop elsewhere.
won’t be long before AA is run out of LAX by Delta and United. The sooner the better, because then it’s Chpt 7 once they lose their international flying.
Spirit has a seat for you!
Take out AA?? The others will raise their OW Biz class fates. EACH way.
About 1K one way.
It’ll be Chapter 11, not 7, but otherwise, I agree with you completely.
Great for us at the SEA hub. The non-stops are usually expensive. I definitely prefer west coast connections to Europe in both directions.
Wouldn’t be surprised if DL follows with a LAX-ICN route if the LAX-HND is somewhat profitable. KE is currently looking at its Skyteam partners to run another LAX-ICN route to comply with monopoly regulations on this route. Since they’re in a trans-pacific joint venture with KE, it wouldn’t be that hard to get off the ground.
Would be nice to see UA add something more interesting like LAX to FCO, LAX to BCN, LAX to LIS, LAX to AMS. Even if it’s seasonal! Doubt it will happen though 🙁
New Delta routes are usually pretty dull to be honest
I’d say some of United’s recent route adds, such as EWR-Palma, EWR – Naples, EWR-Tenerife, Washington-Cape Town, Newark – Dubai are pretty interesting. Or would “interesting” to you simply be defined as “new international route from Los Angeles”?
Yes and now it’s time for some new LAX routes from UA. One can dream lol Delta new routes are dull
I’d love to see all these routes from UA, however, there is no chance they launch LAX to AMS, LIS, FCO, etc.
If LAX is going to get a new Europe route on United this year (which could happen) it will be either FRA or MUC or maybe CDG if the network team wants to play with Delta.
I’d love to see united do a once weekly LAX-RAR, now that Air NZ has declined to fly (even with subsidies)
It was a great destination and easy flight from LA
Delta is probably flying into the “newer” Berlin Brandenburg (BER) and not the discontinued Berlin Tegel (TXL).
Has LALL left boardingarea ?
What?
boardingarea.com no longer shows on Live and let’s fly’s website url. Did the blog leave boarding area?
Three airlines (JetBlue, Norse, & British Airways) already fly LGW and JFK.
The yield will be marginal composed of Sky Miles cashed in by leisure travelers.
Might be better for the Widget to focus resources some where else.
What’s up with that PTY flight? Geographically speaking, ATL is actually west of PTY, so it seems it would make sense to funnel all the people actually going to Panama through ATL. Other than the very few people who would want a nonstop, a flight from LAX doesn’t make much sense to me. DL will have basically no feed from PTY, so Copa isn’t really even “competing” on the route. I suspect these planes to be as empty as the skyscrapers that make up the Panama skyline.
Maybe BER rather than TXL?
Old habits die hard.
DL thinks it can become the global airline of choice for LAX like they’ve done for BOS and LGA/JFK, but I think the effort is doomed for any sophisticated frequent flier. On the east coast, they can offer fantastic connections thru DTW and ATL for any destinations where they don’t have a nonstop. But their only western hub that could serve the same purpose for LAX is SLC, and it’s a weak one at that. A UA-loyal flier has options thru SFO, DEN, ORD, and IAH. An AA-loyal flier can go thru PHX and DFW, as well as the Alaska alliance across the western US. DL just doesn’t have the same options. Their most glaring coverage gap is the southern US between LAX and ATL, which is a pretty big chunk of the country. I don’t think they can economically cover that gap with LAX nonstops, and both SLC and ATL are inconvenient connections.
We need a second LAX-Frankfurt flier. Lufthansa is it, and they need competition on both pricing and type of business class seat. I avoid connections whenever possible – too much to go wrong – so connecting is not really an option for me, so I am stuck with the one flier. I am a little surprised as Frankfurt is the banking capital of Germany and I thought there would be plenty of demand.
Condor operates the flight as well. I’m excited to see how they are growing and becoming more premium.