Delta Air Lines
is the second-largest operator by flights between the US mainland and Hawaii and Asia-Pacific (excluding the Middle East). Only 
United Airlines
is larger, although it is over double the size.
As you probably know, Delta will introduce Salt Lake City to Seoul Incheon flights in June 2025, a SkyTeam and never-served-before airport pair. It will be Salt Lake City’s longest-ever non-stop route. The carrier last flew from Utah to Asia in 2011 when Tokyo Narita was linked. Los Angeles-Brisbane flights begin in December 2024.
Related
Where Would You Like Delta To Fly The Airbus A350-1000?
As you know, Delta has a firm order for 20 Airbus A350-1000s, with options for 20 more. Deliveries will begin in 2026. The type may become Delta’s highest-capacity equipment. It will surely have many premium seats, which will help dictate where it is flown.
Combined with a high overall capacity, they may be used in slot-constrained airports, particularly in Europe, where it is hard to grow with additional frequencies.
But that’s far less interesting than possible new routes. When combined with their long range, they will inevitably mean more new routes. Delta has teased by suggesting destinations in India and Saudi Arabia.
It flew from Atlanta to Mumbai on the 777-200LR in 2008/2009. Might it return? In the past year, it had 55,000 roundtrip point-to-point passengers, making it a slightly larger market than Delhi. Plus, of course, there is considerable transfer traffic.
Despite being a very long way, the Atlanta-Mumbai base fare was only $712 one-way (excl. fuel surcharge, taxes, e
Delta’s 19 Asia-Pacific routes
They are shown below. As of September 30, the carrier plans 5,492 take-offs from the US to Asia-Pacific between October 2024 and August 2025. Seoul Incheon and Tokyo Haneda are so critical that they have 69% of flights. Seattle is Delta’s number one gateway to Asia-Pacific, although Detroit was first before the pandemic.
While take-offs have risen by 15% compared to the same period in 2023/2024, they remain down by a third compared to October 2018-August 2019, before the pandemic. It was when Delta’s Asia-Pacific network looked very different, as shown later in the article.
Photo: Kevin Hackert | Shutterstock
Daily flights peak at 18 on particular days in December-March, benefiting from higher demand for Australia/New Zealand flights due to the Southern Hemisphere summer.
- Atlanta-Seoul Incheon: double daily A350-900
- Atlanta-Tokyo Haneda: daily A350-900
- Detroit-Seoul Incheon: daily A350-900
- Detroit-Shanghai Pudong: daily A350-900
- Detroit-Tokyo Haneda: daily A350-900
- Honolulu-Toyko Haneda: daily 767-300ER
- Las Vegas-Seoul Incheon: a few flights in January 2025 for the Consumer Electronics Show A350-900
- Los Angeles-Auckland: started in October 2023. Daily November-March A350-900, during the southern summer; less often in October/April/May. Ends for the season in May 2025
- Los Angeles-Brisbane: begins December 4. Three times weekly A350-900
- Los Angeles-Papeete: started in December 2022. Three times weekly 767-300ER
- Los Angeles-Sydney: daily but up to 11 weekly A350-900 during the peak summer Down Under
- Los Angeles-Tokyo Haneda: daily A350-900
- Minneapolis-Seoul Incheon: daily A350-900
- Minneapolis-Tokyo Haneda: daily A330neo
- Salt Lake City-Seoul Incheon: begins June 12. Daily A350-900
- Seattle-Seoul Incheon: daily A330neo
- Seattle-Shanghai Pudong: daily A330neo
- Seattle-Taipei: started June 2024, daily A330neo
- Seattle-Tokyo Haneda: daily A330neo
The A350-900 is vital
The A350-900 operates 12 of the 19 routes. The type has three configurations with Delta, with the middle-of-the-road original 306-seat version being the most deployed to Asia-Pacific.
The only exception is its new 275-seat layout, shown below. The lower-capacity, higher-premium config on its 283-ton MTOW aircraft entered service in May 2024. It will be flown from Atlanta to Seoul Incheon between October 26 and December 5, and (interestingly) on the new Salt Lake City route. Delta’s less premium ex-LATAM 336-seat aircraft is the only version not flown to Asia-Pacific.
Destinations cut since 2018
Looking at Delta’s Asia-Pacific network since 2018 shows that its own frames no longer fly to the following places. I intentionally did not look at its network before then. All destinations are reachable with SkyTeam and codeshare partners.
- Beijing Capital: served until February 2020
- Fukuoka: served until May 2019
- Manila: served until March 2020 (appears to have had a handful of flights in January 2021)
- Mumbai: served until March 2020
- Nagoya: served until February 2023
- Osaka Kansai: served until March 2020
- Singapore: served until September 2019
- Tokyo Narita: served until March 2020; shifted to Haneda