What Are Delta Air Lines’ Longest Flights?

Delta Air Lines

flies to over 80 international destinations from its nine primary hubs and three focus cities. Some are short cross-border hops on regional aircraft, such as New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Toronto (YYZ), while others are among the longest flights in the world. So let’s examine Delta Air Lines’ longest flights.

Photo: Delta Air Lines

The international fleet

To get started, let’s consider Delta’s international fleet because it differs considerably from its primary competitors. Delta doesn’t operate the Boeing 787, an aircraft that is a long-distance workhorse for American Airlines and United Airlines.

The longest flight by any US carrier is United’s service from Houston (IAH) to Sydney (SYD) at 8,596 miles, and a Boeing 787-9 is employed on the route.

Similarly, while American and United have extensive Boeing 777 fleets for long-haul flights, Delta has none.

It used to have a small fleet of Boeing 777-200LRs and ERs, but these were all retired in 2020 as part of its fleet reductions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the -LRs that used to ply Delta’s longest routes, but that torch has now been passed to the A350-900.

Photo: Delta Air Lines

Here is Delta’s current international fleet:

• Airbus A350: Delta currently has over 30 of the A350-900 variants in its fleet, which are used to fly its longest international routes. By the end of the decade, this will have increased to more than 60 A350s, including 20 of the larger A350-1000, which were ordered earlier this year (with options for 20 more). When the first examples arrive in 2026, this will become the airline’s new flagship.
• Airbus A330: Delta has the largest A330 fleet in the world, currently standing at 71 aircraft and growing. The fleet is spread across A330-200s and 300s, which were mostly inherited from Northwest Airlines after the 2008 merger, and newer A330-900s, where it currently operates 29 of the variants with a further 10 set to be delivered in the next couple of years.
• Boeing 767: Delta operates the world’s largest Boeing 767 fleet and has both the -300 and -400 in service on international flights. The 767s are set to be retired by 2030.
• Boeing 757: Delta also operates a limited number of thinner transatlantic routes, such as to Shannon and Reykjavík, using the single-aisle 757.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

Delta’s longest routes

Delta’s top ten longest routes all exceed 6,000 miles, and its two longest routes surpass 8,000 miles, making them part of the top 20 longest airline routes in the world.

These longest routes skew towards unique connections where Delta has little or no direct competition or where Delta is connecting to the hubs of its international SkyTeam partners, such as Korean Air and China Airlines.

Delta’s ten longest routes in September 2024

Photo: Delta Air Lines

Let’s take a closer look at some of the routes that are particularly notable or interesting.

The scramble for Africa

South Africa has recently been a contentious area of international expansion for US carriers. Delta has served both Johannesburg (JNB) and Cape Town (CPT) for the past couple of decades, firstly with 767s that made stopovers in Dakar en route to ATL and JFK and then, more recently, using its 777-200LR aircraft.

But the COVID-19 pandemic brought all that to a grinding halt, and when the US and South Africa opened up again, Delta found that it had a new competitor to South Africa in the form of the United.

Johannesburg

United launched its 787-9 service to JNB from Newark (EWR) in June 2021, which caused Delta to bring forward its return to the busiest airport on the African continent. ATL-JNB flights re-launched in late 2021.

The route is the longest flight in Delta’s network, covering over 8,400 miles, and is timed at 15 hours and 40 minutes outbound and 16 hours and 20 minutes on the return to Atlanta.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

This route stretches the A350-900s’ range to its limits due to the higher fuel burn in Johannesburg’s “hot and high” conditions. Therefore, this route will surely be the first candidate for an aircraft upgrade when the increased range and fuel capacity of the A350-1000 come online with Delta in 2026.

Cape Town

Delta provides A350-900 service three times weekly from Atlanta to the Fairest Cape, home of the world’s most spectacular take-offs and landings.

Outbound flights depart on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday for a 15-hour and 10-minute flight time, and the return flights the next day clock in at 15 hours and 50 minutes.

This route materialized after a contentious battle with United, which has already initiated 787-9 service to Cape Town from EWR and wanted to add a Washington DC (IAD) – Cape Town service as well.

Delta challenged this as giving United an advantage on routes to South Africa, and it was only resolved once the South African government allowed both airlines to add thrice-weekly flights. The IAD-CPT service from United is set to begin later this year.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

APAC hub at ICN

When Delta first merged with Northwest Airlines, it acquired the latter’s transpacific network, which included a hub-and-spoke model centered around Tokyo Narita (NRT).

But Delta has abandoned that, shifting its flights to Tokyo to the more centrally located Haneda (HND) airport while placing a far greater emphasis on building an APAC hub at Seoul Incheon (ICN).

Photo: Delta Air Lines

This makes sense because ICN is home to Korean Air, which, like Delta, is a founding partner of the SkyTeam alliance. Delta passengers to ICN benefit from seamless onward connections via the Korean Air network. As a result, Delta flies to ICN from multiple hubs, including ATL, DTW, and MSP, which all make it onto the longest flight list.

The ATL-ICN service is especially notable: Delta connects its largest hub with ICN with 2 x daily A350-900 flights, which is in addition to Korean Air’s Boeing 747-8 service on the same route. As a result, the partners collectively offer more than 1,000 daily seats between Atlanta and Seoul.

Photo: Suparat Chairatprasert | Shutterstock

The A330-900 from SEA

The only top 10 longest flight that does not use an A350 is the A330-900 service from Delta’s hub in Seattle to Taipei. This service makes sense to Delta as it connects the home of its SkyTeam partner, China Airlines, with one of its two West Coast hubs and uses one of the youngest aircraft in its fleet.

Photo: Ian Dewar Photography | Shutterstock

What is also notable about this route is that, unlike any of the other top 10 routes, Delta faces significant competition on it. While its daily flight is complemented by the 5x weekly service of China Airlines (using an A350-900), it competes with a daily service from EVA Air (using a Boeing 787-10) and a 3x weekly service from Starlux Airlines (using an A350-900).