Delta Air Lines
continues to re-strategize its international offerings, particularly to Europe, and has decided to remove its seasonal New York-Munich service after its schedule ends this year. The airline has been trimming its flights to Germany since last year as it weighs the demand on these routes.

Delta cuts New York-Munich service

Delta Air Lines’ seasonal service between New York JFK and Munich will not return in 2025. The airline introduced the flight this April and will continue to deploy its aircraft on the route until October 26. Ishrion Aviation was the first to notice these changes to Delta’s schedule. The carrier’s service to Munich from JFK has the following timings:

  • DL238 New York to Munich departing 18:05; arriving 08:25 (+1 day)
  • DL239 Munich to New York departing 11:45; arriving 14:40

Delta deploys its Boeing 767-400ER on this route thrice weekly and competes directly with Lufthansa, which flies its Airbus A380 between these two airports daily. The carrier had initially planned to bring the JFK-Munich service back next year, but the flight is no longer on sale.

Of course, the US carrier continues to fly to Munich from Atlanta and Detroit (seasonal) as well as to Frankfurt from New York, but clearly, it faces a lot more competition from airlines like United and Lufthansa
for passengers from New York. These two airlines also provide significant connectivity to passengers from their hubs in the US and Germany, respectively. Delta’s service, in comparison, seems limited to just catering to the demand for passengers flying between New York and Munich.

Third cut to Germany

The Munich route joins two others to Germany that have been axed from Delta’s schedule. Last year, the carrier

pulled the plug on its flight between Atlanta and Düsseldorf
for sale from 2024. The carrier inaugurated the 4,507-mile (7,253 km) link in April 2006, pausing it in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world.

After it returned in May last year, the carrier deployed its Boeing 767-300ER on the route thrice weekly but only ran the service until October before scrapping it.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 landing

Photo: Lukas Wunderlich | Shutterstock

This was followed by

Delta’s exit from the Atlanta-Stuttgart route
, which came to light last month. The airline operates the service year-round but plans to discontinue it after October and has closed reservations for this flight for its winter schedule.

The lingering effects of the pandemic seem to be at play here, considering that both these services relied significantly on business traffic. Perhaps the demand for these two routes did not bounce back as much as Delta had anticipated.

Not the first time

Airlines must constantly adjust their offerings and network plans according to demand. Delta will not bring back its summer seasonal daytime service between New York and Paris in 2025 and will operate this flight until October 25.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-332ER (N169DZ) taking off.

Photo: Robert Buchel | Shutterstock

In fact, the airline has slashed more than 65 routes between the United States and Europe over the last three decades as it continues to rework its offerings based on where the demand is. Some of these include flights to Pisa, Hamburg, Warsaw, and Budapest, among others. Simple Flying has analyzed this in detail in the article below.

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