Delta’s Transatlantic Plans For Winter 2020/21 & Summer 2021

a row of seats in a plane
Delta One Suites - Image courtesy of Delta

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Update 23 September: Delta pushed through more route changes

Delta has announced that it plans to significantly increase the number of flights it offers across the Atlantic and across the Pacific in the coming winter and summer seasons. The airline says that the peak will come in the summer 2021 season when it will be operating over 50 more transoceanic flights than it had in the summer 2020 schedule.

If you’re a Delta flyer this is clearly good news, but what the airline hasn’t been very clear about is if the 50 transoceanic flights it will be adding by summer 2021 are in comparison to the planned 2020 summer schedule or to the schedule that eventually operated for most of the summer. The two are very different. Nevertheless, the plans Delta has been discussing look promising, so I’m using to separate posts to examine what Delta has in store for its customers over the next few months.

Yesterday, I took a look at Delta’s transpacific plans while today I’m focusing on its flights across the Atlantic.

Delta’s Transatlantic Plans

Delta’s transatlantic plans are due to be put into practice in the next couple of weeks as the airline looks to start/restart six routes in September (to Europe and Africa) and further 5 routes in October (Europe only). The routes being restarted are mostly ones operated out of New York JFK.

September Route Additions

  • Atlanta – Lagos*
  • Boston – London (LHR)
  • New York (JFK) – Accra*
  • New York (JFK) – Barcelona
  • New York (JFK) – Madrid
  • New York (JFK) – Rome

*Subject to government approval

October Route Additions

  • New York (JFK) – Brussels
  • New York (JFK) – Dublin
  • New York (JFK) – Frankfurt
  • New York (JFK) – Zurich
  • Seattle – Paris (CDG)

The airline has also said that it plans to resume service between Boston and Paris in November.

Altogether, and if everything goes to plan, Delta will be operating upwards of 170 weekly flights across the Atlantic in the coming winter season (all the planned routes will be listed later in this post).

In summer 2021, Delta says it plans to expand it’s “hub to hub” flying between the United States and Europe to the point where it will be offering non-stop daily services to Amsterdam, Paris (CDG), and London (LHR) from Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, New York (JFK). and Minneapolis. Some of these routes will offer more than one daily flight.

Delta’s fight for control of Seattle (American Airlines is making a play for the Seattle market) will continue in the summer of 2021 with the airline planning to restart service to Amsterdam and Paris (CDG) from the city, and Paris will get yet more service from Delta as the airline restarts flights to the French capital from Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, and Raleigh-Durham.

As well as seeing a lot of familiar year-round routes restarting, Delta hopes the summer 2021 season will also see it resuming transatlantic services to more seasonal destinations like Barcelona, Dublin, Rome, and Madrid out of the airline’s “key hubs” in Atlanta, New York (JFK) and Boston.

This Is Where Delta Will Fly (And When)

When all of the information above is collated these are the transatlantic routes and destinations that Delta plans to serve in the coming months and in summer 2021.

EUROPE

Athens (ATH)

  • From New York (JFK) – No service in winter season and up to 2x/day in summer 2021

Amsterdam (AMS)

a brick path with trees and buildings on the side

  • From Atlanta – 2x/day in the winter season and 3x/day in summer 2021
  • From Boston – A daily service in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Detroit – A daily service in the winter season and 3x/day in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK) – A daily service in the winter season and 2x/day in summer 2021
  • From Minneapolis/St PaulNo service 4x/week in winter season and 2x/day in summer 2021
  • From Portland – No service in winter season and 4x/week in summer 2021
  • From Seattle – A daily service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Salt Lake City – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Barcelona (BCN)

  • From Atlanta – no service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK) – A 5x 4x/week service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Brussels (BRU)

  • From New York (JFK) – A 5x 3x/week service in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Dublin (DUB)

a river with buildings and trees

  • From Atlanta – no service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Boston – no service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK)5x 3x/week in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Edinburgh (EDI)

  • From New York (JFK) – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Frankfurt (FRA)

  • From Atlanta – 4x/week in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Detroit – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK)5x 3x/week in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Lisbon (LIS)

  • From New York (JFK) – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

London (LHR)

a bridge over water with towers and towers

  • From Boston5x 4x/week in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Detroit – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK) – A daily service in the winter season and a 2x/day service in summer 2021
  • From Minneapolis/St Paul – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Madrid (MAD)

  • From Atlanta – no service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK)5x 3x/week in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Milan (MXP)

  • From New York (JFK) – 5x/week in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Munich (MUC)

  • From Atlanta2x/week no service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Nice (NCE)

  • From New York (JFK) – No service in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Paris (CDG)

Marriott Rewards Paris Offer

  • From Atlanta – 1x/day in the winter season and 2x/day in summer 2021
  • From Boston4x/week no service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Cincinnati – No service in winter season and 4x/week in summer 2021
  • From Detroit – A daily service in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK) – A daily service in the winter season and a 2x/day in summer 2021
  • From Los Angeles – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Minneapolis-St Paul – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Raleigh-Durham – No service in winter season and 5x/week in summer 2021
  • From Seattle – Between 3x & 4x/week in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From Salt Lake City – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Reykjavik (KEF)

  • From New York (JFK) – No service in winter season and 5x/week in summer 2021

Rome (FCO)

  • From Atlanta – no service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK)5x 3x/week in the winter season and up to 2x/day in summer 2021

Stuttgart (STR)

  • From Atlanta – no service in winter season and 5x/week in summer 2021

Venice (VCE)

a water next to a city

  • From New York (JFK) – No service in winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Zurich (ZRH)

  • From New York (JFK)5x 3x/week in the winter season and a daily service in summer 2021

Africa/Middle East

Accra* (ACC)

  • From New York (JFK) – Up to 7x/week in the winter season and 5x/week service in summer 2021

Dakar (DSS)

  • From New York (JFK) – 3x/week in the winter season and 3x/week in summer 2021

Johannesburg* (JNB)

Johannesburg

  • From Atlanta – 3x/week from 13 December and 5x/week in summer 2021

Lagos* (LOS)

  • From Atlanta – Up to 7x/week in the winter season and 5x/week in summer 2021
  • From New York (JFK) – No service in winter season and 3x/week in summer 2021

Tel Aviv (TLV)

  • From New York (JFK) – Up to 2x/day in the winter season and 2x/week in summer 2021

Thoughts

As impressive as this plan to reboot Delta’s transatlantic routes is, a great deal of what Delta is hoping to do depends on the world getting the current pandemic under control and/or a vaccine for Covid-19 being freely available. It’s worth remembering that anyone who has spent any time in the United States currently has to spend time in quarantine when they visit Europe and then once again when they return to the US…and that’s assuming the European country in question allows them to enter in the first place. A number of European countries are not permitting most US citizens to enter even if they subject themselves to quarantine (I warned that this could happen at the beginning of May).

With a bit of luck (and a lot of hard work from scientists and authorities around the world), the summer of 2021 will be a much happier time and Delta will see its routes return and flourish…but there’s a lot of time between now and next summer and I can’t help but feel that the airline’s plan to restart nine European routes in September/October is more than a little ambitious. September is less than a week away and we’re still seeing spikes in infection rates around the United States and in various European countries and, while this is what everyone is seeing in the news, there is a noticeably diminished appetite to reopen borders and get travel flowing across the Atlantic again.

Yes, the travel industry is desperate to get us all back up in the air and into hotels around the world but that doesn’t mean that’s what’s going to happen.

a woman sleeping on a bed

Bottom Line

It’s great to see Delta planning such a robust increase in flights and routes in the coming months but this should all be viewed as what the airline wishes to do rather than what’s actually going to happen. If circumstances allow it, I’ve no doubt that Delta will get all these routes back up and running again but Delta can’t control circumstances and, as things stand, I can’t see that the world around us is going to change enough (and quickly enough) for some of Delta’s wishes to come true. I hope I’m wrong.

2 COMMENTS

  1. […] If you’re a Delta flyer this is clearly good news, but what the airline hasn’t been very clear about is if the 50 transoceanic flights it will be adding by summer 2021 are in comparison to the planned 2020 summer schedule or to the schedule that eventually operated for most of the summer. The two are very different. Nevertheless, the plans Delta has been discussing look promising, so I’m using two separate posts to examine what Delta has in store for its customers over the next few months. In this post, I’m taking a look at Delta’s transpacific plans (click here to read about Delta’s transatlantic plans) […]

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