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Delta Boosts International Flights in 2011
Airline targets high-demand business travel markets for selective
international growth, applies for new routes to China
ATLANTA,
Nov. 17, 2010 – Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) will expand its international
schedule with new and expanded service to cities in Asia and Europe for spring
and summer 2011, continuing its focus on markets with high demand for business
travel.
The airline’s most significant expansion will be in
Asia,
where Delta has recently seen revenue growth
of more than 50 percent. Delta today applied with the U.S. Department of
Transportation to begin new routes to Beijing and Guangzhou, and plans expanded
service to Shanghai and Manila.
“International
business travel demand is the underpinning of the global economic recovery,”
said Glen Hauenstein, Delta’s executive vice president – Network
Planning, Revenue Management and Marketing. “With double-digit revenue growth in most every
international business market over the last year, our 2011 schedule reflects a measured
response to business customers’ desire for increased access to the world’s most
important business capitals. New
flights to China, London’s Heathrow Airport and increased flights to our international
alliance partners’ gateways at Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Schiphol and
Guangzhou are cornerstones of our international plan for 2011.”
Delta recently affirmed that its capacity will
increase between 1 percent and 3 percent in 2011 – consistent with
projected global economic growth – and its fleet will end this year with 91
fewer aircraft than in 2009.
New or
expanded international routes planned for spring and summer
2011 include:
|
Region |
Route |
Effective |
Aircraft |
Frequency |
|
Asia |
Tokyo-Narita – Guangzhou, China* |
April 6, 2011 |
Boeing 767-300ER |
New daily service |
|
|
Tokyo-Narita –
Manila, Philippines |
April 5-July 14, 2011 |
Boeing 757-200 |
Second daily flight
during peak season |
|
|
Atlanta – Shanghai |
June 5, 2011 |
Boeing 777-200ER/LR |
New twice weekly service |
|
|
Detroit – Beijing* |
July 1, 2011 |
Boeing 777-200ER |
New five times weekly service |
|
Europe |
Boston – London-Heathrow |
March 26, 2011 |
Boeing 767-300ER |
New twice daily service |
|
|
Miami – London-Heathrow |
March 26, 2011 |
Boeing 767-300ER |
New daily service |
|
|
Boston
– Paris-Charles de Gaulle |
March 26, 2011 |
Boeing 757-200 |
Third daily flight during
peak season** |
|
|
New York-JFK-Paris
Charles de Gaulle |
June 1, 2011 |
Boeing 767-300ER |
Sixth daily flight during
peak season** |
|
|
Seattle-Amsterdam |
June 1, 2011 |
Boeing 767-300ER |
Second daily flight
during peak season |
|
|
Pittsburgh-Paris
Charles de Gaulle |
June 1, 2011 |
Boeing 757-200 |
Expanded from five-times
weekly to daily for peak season |
|
|
New York-JFK – Reykjavík, Iceland* |
June 2, 2011 |
Boeing 757-200 |
New five times weekly service |
* Subject to government approval
** Existing flights operated by joint venture
partner Air France
The
planned schedules for Delta’s new and expanded service is available at [URL]
Europe and Africa
Delta’s growth
across the Atlantic in 2011 will be focused at London’s Heathrow Airport where
it recently received new slot authorities from the U.S. and E.U. governments; in
Iceland where it will introduce its first-ever service to Reykjavik; at its
joint venture hubs with Air France-KLM in Paris and Amsterdam where it will
expand service to four U.S. cities; and in Africa where it is adding new
flights to Angola.
At London-Heathrow, Delta
will add two daily flights to Boston and one daily flight to Miami effective
March 26, complementing existing nonstop service to New York-JFK, Atlanta,
Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
In Boston, the new service will be timed to connect
to 15 nonstop domestic destinations served by Delta, as well as serving the
local market, which is one of the largest travel markets between the U.S. and
Heathrow.
In Miami, Delta will introduce new intra-Florida
flights to improve customers’ connecting options to and from Florida’s biggest
business and leisure destinations.
Effective March 26, Delta will add five new daily round-trip
flights between Miami and Orlando; four new daily round-trip flights between
Miami and Jacksonville; and five new daily round-trip flights between Miami and
Tampa/St. Petersburg. The flights will be timed to facilitate new connections
to trans-Atlantic flights from Miami. In addition to the new service to
London-Heathrow, Delta’s joint venture partners Air France-KLM and Alitalia
offer nonstop flights from Miami to their hubs in Paris-Charles de Gaulle,
Amsterdam, Milan and Rome.
The intra-Florida flights will be operated by Delta
Connection carriers Comair and Pinnacle airlines using 50-seat Bombardier
CRJ200 regional jets.
New service between New York-JFK and Keflavik
International Airport in Reykjavik, which begins June 2, 2011, is part of
Delta’s ongoing investment in the New York market, adding to the more than 40
new destinations introduced from LaGuardia and JFK combined in the last four
years.
Reykjavik will become the
38th international destination flown from Delta’s JFK hub, strengthening its
position as the leading global carrier at JFK. With the summer 2011 schedule, Delta expects to offer nearly
twice as many international destinations from JFK as its next largest
competitor.
Delta also will expand its flight between
Pittsburgh and Paris to daily service for the summer of 2011, up from five days
per week in 2010; and add additional daily flights between Boston and Paris,
New York-JFK and Paris, and Seattle and Amsterdam.
Each of the new routes
between the U.S. and Europe will be operated within the scope of Delta’s
trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia.
In addition to its 2011 European growth, Delta will
be adding additional Africa service from Atlanta when it begins flights between
Atlanta and Luanda, Angola, with an intermediate stop in Dakar, Senegal, on
Jan. 20 as previously announced. Luanda
will become Delta’s eighth African destination, further expanding Delta’s
position as the leading U.S. airline to the continent.
The new and expanded international service will be
operated with a mix of aircraft that reflect Delta’s investment of $2 billion
in enhanced airport facilities and global products and services through
2013. When complete, Delta will
offer full flat-bed seats on more than 100 trans-oceanic aircraft, including
all Boeing 777s, 767s and 747s, and will feature personal, in-seat
entertainment for both BusinessElite and Economy class customers on all
widebody flights.
Asia
Delta today applied with the U.S. Department of
Transportation for permission to begin new nonstop service between its Detroit
hub and Beijing, operated five times weekly. The proposed service will be
Delta’s third nonstop route between Detroit and China, complementing existing year-round service to Shanghai and
Hong Kong, expanding Delta’s Asian gateway in Detroit.
“Delta’s announcement that it has applied for new
service between Detroit and Beijing is another significant step in the
development of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport as a leading gateway
to Asia,” said Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano. “This
new route, coupled with Delta’s existing service from Detroit to Shanghai and
Hong Kong, would further strengthen the ties between Michigan and China,
creating jobs and economic opportunities on both sides of the Pacific.
“It’s the latest example of the benefits of our
longstanding partnership with Delta, which has created jobs, spurred the
regional economy and opened a world of opportunities for businesses and
entrepreneurs in Detroit and Michigan,“ he said.
From its hub in Atlanta, Delta will resume nonstop
service to Shanghai on a twice-weekly basis. The service, which was first
launched in 2008, was temporarily suspended in 2009 as the global economic
downturn depressed demand for international travel. With
travel rebounding in Asia, Delta has decided to reactivate the Atlanta-Shanghai
route on a reduced schedule for 2011, with future expansion possible based on
performance.
“The decision by Richard Anderson and the
leadership team of Delta Air Lines to restore nonstop service between Atlanta
and Shanghai in June 2011 is yet another example of how Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport continues to grow as the world’s busiest
passenger airport,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
“The addition of more flights will strengthen the ties between Atlanta and
China and help foster important business relationships. Strong partners such as
Delta enable us to more effectively pursue international economic development
and investment opportunities in cities such as Shanghai that lead to job
creation and wage growth in Atlanta and the state of Georgia.”
Delta today also submitted an application with the Department of
Transportation to begin new nonstop service between its
hub at Tokyo-Narita and Guangzhou, China, which would create convenient
connecting service for customers traveling between the U.S. and China’s third-largest city, which is a major
commercial and manufacturing center. If approved, the service would reconnect
two key SkyTeam hubs – Delta’s at Tokyo-Narita
and China Southern’s at Guangzhou – after this
route was suspended in 2009 amid the global economic downturn.
Service also will be
expanded for the peak travel season between Narita and Manila, Philippines,
which is one of Asia’s leading travel markets. Delta will add one new Boeing
757-200 flight between April 5 and July 15 to complement its daily year-round Boeing
747-400 service between the two cities.
“Delta is
strongly positioned for future Asian growth thanks to our industry-leading alliances
in the region,” Hauenstein said. “During 2011, SkyTeam
will add three additional partners to cement its No. 1 position in Greater
China, providing us an even stronger platform to invest in new flights to
points across the Pacific region.”
China Southern is currently
SkyTeam’s largest member in China. Korean Air is the
largest member in Asia. China
Eastern, Shanghai Airlines and China Airlines are each slated to join the
alliance by 2012.
Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million
customers each year. With an industry-leading global network,
Delta and the Delta
Connection carriers offer service to 351
destinations in 64 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta
employs more than 75,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more
than 700 aircraft. A founding member of the SkyTeam global
alliance, Delta participates in the industry’s leading trans-Atlantic
joint venture with Air France-KLM
and Alitalia.
Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 13,000
daily flights, with hubs in Amsterdam,
Atlanta,
Cincinnati,
Detroit,
Memphis,
Minneapolis-St.
Paul, New
York-JFK, Paris-Charles
de Gaulle, Salt Lake
City and Tokyo-Narita.
The airline’s service includes the SkyMiles frequent
flier program, the world’s largest airline loyalty program; the award-winning BusinessElite
service; and 50 Delta Sky Clubs
in airports worldwide. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding
passes, check bags and review flight status at delta.com.
A portion of travel for some itineraries may be on
the Delta Connection carriers: Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Chautauqua, Comair,
Compass Airlines, Mesaba, Pinnacle Airlines, Shuttle America dba Delta Shuttle,
and SkyWest; SkyTeam partners: Air France, Aeromexico, Alitalia, China
Southern, KLM, and Korean Airlines; or Delta codeshare partners: Aerolitoral,
Alaska Airlines, American Eagle, Avianca, Brit Air, China Airlines, City Jet,
Horizon Air Industries, KLM CityHopper and Olympic Airlines.
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