Summary
- Delta’s shortest Airbus A350 route will be between Atlanta and Orlando, although it won’t last long.
- It’ll only see the equipment in July, with roundtrip flights falling from nine to four.
- Delta plans two A350 departures on July 14.
Delta’s shortest scheduled A350-900 service is between Atlanta and Orlando, covering just 351 nautical miles (649 km) each way. The Florida city is the SkyTeam member’s leading destination from Atlanta, which everyone knows is its top hub and the world’s busiest airport.
The route is used to Delta’s widebodies. Over the years, aircraft have included the A330-200, A330-300, 767-200, 767-300, 767-400ER, 777-200, L-1011, and more. While the A350 will still be flown there, fewer flights are planned. Despite this, the route is sufficiently short to temporarily replace hub-to-hub Detroit-Minneapolis as its shortest A350 service.

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Delta’s A350s to Orlando
In May 2024, Delta filed schedules for nine roundtrip A350-900 flights between Atlanta and Orlando in July. However, they have now reduced to just four roundtrips.
Unsurprisingly, flights will be on the airline’s ex-LATAM, lower-premium, higher-economy, 339-seat equipment. There are 30 Delta One suites, 63 seats in Comfort+, and a whopping 246 in the Main Cabin. No other aircraft type/variant in Delta’s fleet has more seats. Click here to see the airline’s two other A350 configurations.
Photo: Robin Guess | Shutterstock
Flights are scheduled as follows. Note that the flight numbers in both directions are indeed the same. Further changes remain possible.
Atlanta-Orlando: July 8, 14, 15 (DL1213, 08:15-09:43); July 14 (DL1576, 12:45-14:15)
Orlando-Atlanta: July 8, 14, 15 (DL1213, 11:03-12:35); July 14 (DL1576, 15:35-17:20)

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Day in the life: July 14
Using Cirium data to examine Delta’s full Atlanta-Orlando schedule shows that it plans 12 to 16 daily departures in July (double for both ways). To illustrate just how enormously busy its Georgia hub is, despite being the number one destination, Orlando only accounts for one in 59 flights.
Consider July 14, when two A350 flights will head to the Florida airport. That Sunday, Delta’s Orlando schedule is as follows. Notice that no other twin-aisle equipment will be used that day.
- 07:15: 757-200
- 08:15: A350-900
- 09:30: 757-200
- 10:30: 757-200
- 11:45: 757-200
- 12:45: A350-900
- 14:10: 757-200
- 15:15: 757-200
- 16:15: 757-200
- 17:15: 757-200
- 18:15: 757-200
- 19:30: 757-200
- 20:30: 757-200
- 21:30: 757-300
- 22:30: 757-300
- 23:45: 757-200
Photo: Ceri Breeze | Shutterstock
Where Delta’s Orlando passengers go
According to US Department of Transportation T-100 data, Delta carried 1.9 million roundtrip passengers on its non-stop Atlanta-Orlando flights last year. An average of 88% of available seats were filled. Relating these figures to booking data suggests that an estimated 63% of passengers (approximately 1.2 million) transited to another flight in Atlanta.
Photo: Ryan Fletcher | Shutterstock
Forty Orlando origin-destinations had 10,000+ roundtrip passengers last year via Atlanta. The 20 most popular were Memphis, Huntsville, Las Vegas, Greenville-Spartanburg, Birmingham, Kansas City, Richmond, San Antonio, San Diego, Nashville, Knoxville, Norfolk, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Greensboro, Chattanooga, São Paulo (yes!), Milwaukee, St Louis, and San Francisco.
These markets were so popular that they accounted for ~30% of Delta’s total Orlando transfer passengers over Atlanta.
What do you make of it all? Let us know in the comments section.