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It has been seven long years since Delta has offered flights to Hong Kong (the Seattle Hong-Kong route ended in October 2018), but now it looks like the airline is ready to give Hong Kong another go as it says that it will serve the special administrative region of China from Los Angeles starting in 2026.
Delta’s LAX – Hong Kong route
So far, Delta hasn’t told us what the schedule for its new Hong Kong route will look like, but there are a few other things that we do know.
- The first flight to launch on this route will operate on 6 June 2026
- The Los Angeles – Hong Kong route will be offered daily
- Delta will use its Airbus A350-900 aircraft to operate the route.
The A350-900 that Delta will use on this route will offer all of the airline’s cabin options (Delta One, Delta Premium Select, Delta Comfort and Delta Main), but we don’t yet know which cabin layout will be offered.
It may be the 32/48/36/190 seat layout (Delta One/Delta Premium Select/Delta Comfort/Delta Main) layout or it could be the 40/40/36/159 layout.
When discussing the new route, Paul Baldoni (Delta’s SVP of Network Planning) had this to say:
“As the largest global carrier at LAX, we’re continuing to invest in routes that matter to our customers and deliver the premium travel experience that they’ve come to expect from Delta.”
Delta has also suggested that this route goes beyond just the transport of passengers.
With a capacity for 20 tons of cargo, the A350-900 is well equipped to “expand [the airline’s] ability to transport high-value shipments — including electronics, e-commerce and perishables” so, perhaps, this will be a route that’s less dependent on people flying across the Pacific than the Seattle – Hong Kong route that was, presumably, unprofitable seven years ago.
Delta will add Los Angeles – Chicago flights as well
In what appears to be another play at securing dominance at LAX, Delta has confirmed that it also plans to launch a new service between Los Angeles and Chicago from June next year.
Launching just one day after the LAX – Hong Kong route (on 7 June 2026), the Los Angeles – Chicago route will operate 3x per week using Delta’s Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Once again, Delta has failed to mention what the schedule for this route will look like (so we don’t even know what days of the week the route will operate), but as Delta only operates one cabin layout on its 737-800 aircraft we can say that flyers will have the choice of 16 First Class seats (set out in a 2-2 layout), 36 Delta Comfort+ seats, and 82 regular main cabin seats set out in a 3-3 layout.
Bottom line
Delta has announced expansion plans for Los Angeles with a new route to Hong Kong and a route to Chicago linking the city with Southeast Asia and the Midwest fro summer 2026.
As things stand, we don’t yet know what the route timings will look like (we know the Hong Kong route will be operated daily and the Chicago route will be operated 3x/week), so we’ll post an update as soon as Delta updates its booking systems (which may happen this weekend).
