Delta Air Lines adding international routes, starting new ones ni 2010

Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, has announced expansion of its international routes, including using larger aircraft, for the summer of 2010.

The planned routes have been scheduled to originate from the existing as well as additional cities in the United States. The expansion is to involve either adding flights on current routes or starting new ones, raising the number of flights to and from the US cities, as well as using bigger planes.

Delta Air Lines, the biggest airline operator in the world, said in a statement that the expansion is being done as a part of its efforts to restore profitability by 2010. As a result of its merger with Northwest Airlines, Delta said that it is now in a position to use larger aircraft on its longer and more profitable flights, and smaller planes for the less profitable services.

The carrier is now focusing on trans-Atlantic flights, trans-Pacific flights and Africa-bound flights.

Delta Air Lines’ new routes or expanded routes that have received approval include the following: Flights from Detroit, Michigan, the United States, to Seoul (South Korea), Hong Kong and Shanghai (China); from Salt Lake City (Utah, the United States) to Tokyo (Japan); and from New York (the United States) to Copenhagen (Denmark) and Stockholm (Sweden).

Delta’s destinations in Africa, which are awaiting approval, are: Malabo (the capital of Equatorial Guinea); Monrovia (the capital city of Liberia); Nairobi (the capital of Kenya); and Luanda (the capital city of Angola).

Delta Air Lines will add non-stop flights from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to Seoul and Hong Kong from June 2010 – with 5 flights a week each to Hong Kong and Seoul.

Delta also will operate up to 5 non-stop services a week between Detroit and Shanghai.

The new flights from Detroit to Seoul and Shanghai will begin on June 1, 2010; and the service to Hong Kong on June 2, 2010.

Detroit Metropolitan Airport was a hub for Northwest Airlines, which Delta Air Lines bought in 2008.

Delta says it is resuming the 5-times-a-week, non-stop flights between Salt Lake City (Utah, the United States) and Tokyo (Japan) in the summer of 2010. The carrier had suspended the Salt Lake City-Tokyo flights on October 1, 2009, after having operated them for some months, citing as reasons the decreased demand and the adverse effects of the swine flu epidemic.

The carrier also is restoring seasonally its flights from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the United States, to Paris as well as operating an additional service to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

At present, Delta Air Lines has 3 daily flights between Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport Minneapolis and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.