Delta Air Lines is ramping up transpacific service from its Los Angeles (LAX) hub with more service to the South Pacific and a return to Mainland China.
Delta Adding More LAX Transpacific Flights
The fight for supremacy in Los Angeles is a difficult battle: American, Delta, and United all call LAX a hub and there is no overwhelming dominant carrier. Many routes have been tried and failed, with American Airlines scaling back tremendously its long-haul operations from LAX during the pandemic and never restoring many routes.
Delta, however, has moved in the other direction and has added or restarted a number of longhaul routes from Los Angeles including London, Paris, and Tahiti.
Delta Adds Year-Round Los Angeles – Auckland Service
That route map will grow this autumn when Delta begins nonstop service to Auckland (AKL) on October 28, 2023. Today, Delta announced that its seasonal service to AKL would become year-round service. From November to March, the flight will operated daily, then be reduced to three times weekly from April to October.
This news comes as United Airlines will also launch Los Angeles – Auckland in late October and American Airlines will resume its Los Angeles – Auckland route that has been dormant since the pandemic. United also serves Auckland from San Francisco (SFO) and American from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW).
Delta Doubles Sydney, Australia Service From LAX
Furthermore, ahead of the Southern Hemisphere summer, Delta will increase its Sydney (SYD) service from daily to double daily starting in December. That flight is operated by an Airbus A350-900.
Delta Resumes Los Angeles – Shanghai Sevice
Delta will also resume a four-times-weekly, year-round service to Shanghai-Pudong International Airport from its Los Angeles hub starting March 31, 2024. This route last operated pre-pandemic.
CONCLUSION
Delta is growing its international presence at LAX by 1.) making Auckland service year-round, 2.) doubling Sydney service during the peak travel period, and 3.) resuming Shanghai service next spring.
We’ll discuss Delta’s Atlantic add-ons tomorrow. For now, it is exciting to see Delta growing at my home airport of LAX. On a broader note, we are seeing a huge capacity increase to the South Pacific this winter. Will there be sufficient demand to fill airplanes at profitable yields? We shall see.
image: Delta
I looked at some AKL flights and I’m just glad that they’re not charging $1600-2000 main cabin fares for some of these, like they are on anywhere, US to ICN.
You could try Bonza or Rex for intra Aussie travel. Both are ULCC
So with the exception of China. . .AA and Qantas (One World) flys to all these place and Melborne. . .big deal DL. DL has no more partners down under so your stuck once you get there. No thanks.
Just FYI, Delta stopped their LAX-Tahiti route earlier this year, maybe late March. Not sure if it’s seasonal or a permanent suspension.
It is a winter seasonal route.
So, let’s see, Delta wants to go against three other airlines with no alliance or any legitimate connectivity in AKL. On what is essentially a long and thin route. As well, do this directly after alienating the core of its loyal customers. This should end well, lol. It’s like playing Monopoly with a 10 year old.
That’s exactly my thought. Who would fly Delta on such a long route when you can fly much better airlines? I probably would if getting status with Delta still mattered but that was killed by them. Just flew yesterday on a 3 hour domestic route with them. Diamond medallion, row 30 and I was #23 for upgrade. Not even Comfort +. Thus, they won’t see my face again unless it is convenient. There was an article on the local paper here this week. Flights out of MSP are the most expensive in the country. Delta needs a reality check.
Exactly. My company and I have already spent $30,000 on Delta this year. While it would actually be pretty easy to make the $35k MQD for me next year, if I can’t at a minimum count on an aisle comfort plus seat a week out for a $800 one-way, I’m not sure what the point is.
I guess I could hold out a year and see what it’s like being a Diamond in 2025, but I doubt it means 80+% upgrade chances on Comfort + paid tickets. Delta also seems to offer the least legroom and the food simply isn’t coming back.
No thanks. I’ll take Qantas or UAL. As I always have.
Absolutely UA is the way to go! No thanks to DL’s 2-2-2 business class on a 15 hour flight!
All of them.are 2-2-2, no?
Delta is going to get absolutely crushed on this AKL year round route! As others have mentioned, no partners to connect to, a market that is VERY seasonal, and a brand new market you don’t have an existing customer base at is not a recipe for success. This year round service won’t last long, they’ve already switched it back and forth from seasonal to year round a few times.
UA seems to be committed to LAX long haul once again, and they will win over DL.
I genuinely cannot understand the draw of AKL as a destination. I appreciate that the rest of NZ has a reputation for amazing nature etc, but I have been to Auckland itself and it felt like a provincial English city stuck in the 1980s. With such a tiny population and no real geographical leverage for connections to other places, the amount of long-haul service that it enjoys to both Asia and the Americas is just staggering.
Perhaps you missed the point. People don’t always want large cities and everything that comes with it. Plus, if you’re on *A, you have LOADS of onward connections throughout NZ, Australia and the rest of the South Pacific.
Assuming you have the money, who pays for Delta business-class to New Zealand? The product is inferior and simply not competitive. Air New Zealand and United offer a better product. Heck, you could even fly through Hawaii, Tahiti or Fiji with a mini-stopover for almost certainly less money than Delta and enjoy a better product. There is also no way I would fly ECONOMY on Delta to New Zealand since you can’t access the Sky Club. At least Air New Zealand has the sky couch or whatever they call it in economy.
Air New Zealand’s seat is circa 2006, really uncomfortable, and poorly laid out in business class, particularly on the 787. That’s all going to change, but slowly. The rest of NZ’s on board product, apart from the seat, is miles ahead of Delta and Delta will be flying the ex-LATAM A350 with the non-Delta standard product. My sense is Delta will fail spectacularly in this market and is just “me too’ing” itself into a highly competitive one it does not know well.
Agreed.
Delta and their partners have gone downhill. I was in London two weeks ago and flying back in coach since Delta wanted $16k for Delta One. As a Diamond, I always had access to the Virgin longe at LHR. Well, no more. You have to be flying Delta One or Premium Economy to access it. Seriously? Diamond means absolutely nothing anymore.
Such an interesting datapoint. Truly, what is status for when you cannot even access a SkyTeam lounge as a Diamond…?
I think that the Clubhouse has some special access rules and may technically be considered a first class lounge (i.e. no access for Elite Plus customers) as VS had been afraid that it would get overrun by AFKL pax on 40 minute flights and there was some special dispensation by SkyTeam. I believe that AFKL have now moved back to T4, so that’s no longer an issue, but clearly Virgin aren’t too keen on being generous with SkyTeam pax (they also charge some steep Advance Seat Reservation fees with no waivers for ST Elites).
The lounge used by Air France in terminal 4 is absolutely horrible. Just appalling. I was there last week. Thankfully, Air France has champagne and somehow manages to serve a decent meal on a 1-hour flight. They did 3 pours of the champagne bottle!
Virgin (half owned by Delta) got the Clubhouse exempted by Sky Team as a “first class” lounge.
Mec, if they did “3 pours on a 1-hr flight”, I’m pretty sure the cabin crew was rolling their eyes at you in the galley…lol.
Delta will have a lot of competition on LAX-AKL, and likely face very challenging yields, keeping this route going all year long, even at reduced frequency. Delta has no connectivity beyond AKL and essentially a token presence in Australia. The bulk of the business traffic that flies in these markets, with point of sale balanced between the Australia/New Zealand and US end, fly Air New Zealand, United, Qantas, and American. Delta will have to sell the cabins almost exclusively to US originating itineraries. Good luck with that.
Wow, did this article bring out the Delta haters. Has it occurred to you that they are making Auckland year-round is based on encouraging bookings so far? I note no disparaging comments about making Sydney twice daily. Papete is seasonal. If they fail with any of these routes, then they fail. The glee detected in your predictions is childish.
Hate boners. This news really is the least offensive thing to be yapping about.
AKL will absolutely fail. It isn’t rocket science. Their is way too much capacity on LAX-AKL, it went from just NZ last year to all 3 of the US airlines this winter. That’s too much capacity, and the fares show that. Last winter it was well over $2k round trip, this winter you can find fares for $1k round trip, which is really cheap and not sustainable for a flight that long.
To add to that, DL is the only carrier without a real partner in that region, and they are flying an inferior 2-2-2 business class product. They are going to get absolutely crushed.
UA now dominates the South Pacific region, and they aren’t going anywhere. DL doesn’t have partners to make it work, and AA has incompetent management that is running the airline down a hill.