With the start of the 2023 summer boreal season, Delta resumes transatlantic operations at Los Angeles (LAX) offering two non-stop services to London – Heathrow (LHR) and Paris (CDG). Both destinations are hubs for its Joint Venture partners Virgin Atlantic and Air France. The airline suspended its European services from LAX for three years in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
According to data obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium, the Atlanta-based carrier will have a 7,868-seat weekly offering between Los Angeles (LAX) and Europe by summer 2023, it will be the second-largest U.S. carrier with the most seat capacity from LAX to the Old Continent.
All Delta flights between LAX and Europe will be operated on 281-seat Airbus A330-900neo aircraft: 28 Delta One Suites, 28 Premium Select, 56 Delta Comfort+ and 168 Main Cabin.
Flight schedule between LAX and London
Beginning March 26, 2023, Delta returns this service after more than 7 years, schedules are as follows:
- Los Angeles – London Heathrow Flight DL 186 LAX 20:40 – LHR 15:05+1 flights daily.
- London Heathrow – Los Angeles Flight DL 187 LHR 15:45 – LAX 19:00 daily flights.
The airline’s last operation on this route was October 6, 2015, which operated daily on Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. According to data compiled by Civil Aviation Authority UK (CCA) 1,602,892 were mobilized in 2019 between Los Angeles (LAX) and London – Heathrow (LHR), the British capital is LAX’s main European market.
This sector is highly competitive between legacy airline, currently four airlines offer service on this route: Virgin Atlantic (Delta’s partner), American Airlines, British Airways and United.
Flight schedule between LAX and Paris
As of May 8, 2023, the airline resumes operations on this route, schedules are as follows:
- Los Angeles – Paris Flight DL 290 LAX 17:00 – CDG 13:05+1 flights daily.
- Paris – Los Angeles Flight DL 291 CDG 15:20 – LAX 18:20 daily flights.
Delta suspended its services between LAX and the French capital on March 22, 2020, because of the pandemic crisis. According to data obtained by Eurostat 1,066,685 passengers were mobilized in 2019 between Paris (CDG) and Los Angeles (LAX), this route is the second largest air market between France and the United States.
The Atlanta-based airline will be operating this service along with its partner Air France, it will also compete with Air Tahiti Nui.
Delta’s long-haul market recovery at LAX
Delta is currently offering only one long-haul service from Los Angeles, which is the route to Sydney (SYD) where it operates daily flights on Airbus A350-900s and will increase this route to 10 flights a week as of December 16.
By the end of this year, it will continue to restore its transpacific network with the return of its operations to Tokyo Haneda (HND) on Airbus A330-900neo and a new premium leisure-oriented service to Papeete, Tahiti (PPT) on Boeing 767-300ERs.
With the return of its routes to Europe from LAX, Delta will strengthen its intercontinental offering, in addition to its Joint Venture and codeshare partners: Air France, ITA Airways, KLM and Virgin Atlantic offer services from their main hubs in Paris – Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Rome – Fiumicino (FCO), Amsterdam (AMS) and London Heathrow (LHR).
See also: Delta plans to fly to Perú with Airbus A350 aircraft