Those planning to travel to French Polynesia from the US West Coast will now have more options, with Delta Air Lines extending its seasonal service between Los Angeles and Papeete. The carrier initially planned to operate between the two cities until March but has now extended the operations to June.
Service extension
Delta Air Lines
will soon start its seasonal service between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Faaʻa International Airport (PPT) in the French Polynesian capital city of Papeete. The airline had initially planned to run this service from October 2024 to March 2025, but it has now emerged that it has extended the service by a few months.
As spotted by Ishrion Aviation, Delta Air Lines will now operate this service from October 2024 to June 7, 2025, as opposed to the previously planned March 27. Clearly, it anticipates enough demand for the sunny destination to extend its schedule.
Competing with Air France and Air Tahiti Nui
According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Delta will offer four return flights between LAX and PPT in October, 26 in November, December, and January, 24 in February, and 26 in March and April. In May, the number of return flights will drop to six, and in June, the service will finally end with 28 services.
Photo: Robert Buchel | Shutterstock
Delta, however, will compete with two other airlines on this route: Air France
and Air Tahiti Nui. The flight between LAX and PPT typically takes a little over 7.5 hours to complete. As such, carriers deploy their widebody aircraft between the two cities.
While Delta plans to deploy its Boeing 767 aircraft, Air France uses an Airbus A350 on this route, and Air Tahiti Nui flies a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. Air France runs this service from Paris with a stopover in Los Angeles, while two of Air Tahiti Nui’s flights to LAX are also part of a larger service. One of them flies to Paris, while the other connects LAX with Auckland via Papeeti, as per Flightradar24.
Photo: christopheronglv | Shutterstock
Located in the Southern Pacific Ocean, French Polynesia is a group of more than 120 islands. International travel to and from this region is via the Faa’a International Airport. Apart from nonstop flights to LAX, PPT is also connected to Seattle and San Francisco with nonstop services.
The airport also receives flights other cities, such as Honolulu (Hawaiian Airlines), Bora Bora, and Auckland (Air New Zealand), among others.
Delta’s other network plans
Papeete isn’t the only city receiving more love from Delta. The carrier recently also
announced several new routes and increased services from its hub in Boston
, focusing primarily on the spring break and Patriots’ Day holiday period of 2025.
The two new destinations include Myrtle Beach (MYR) and Pensacola (PNS), to be served by Delta only during the weekends. Some of the services from Boston to see increased frequencies include flights to Orlando, Tampa, and Phoenix, among others.
Photo: EchoVisuals | Shutterstock
The airline is also planning its largest-ever transatlantic expansion with several new routes, with destinations that include Naples, Brussels, and Catania, among others, from its hubs in the US. Simple Flying has discussed this in detail in the article below.