Delta Air Lines daily Sydney-Los Angeles flights launched

Delta Air Lines, the largest airline in the world, started daily, non-stop flights between Sydney in Australia and Los Angeles in the United States on July 3, 2009, becoming the 4th international carrier to fly between Australia and the United States. The first flight of Delta Air Lines’ Flight 16 – the daily flight in either direction – took off from Sydney International Airport at 9.25 a.m. (2325 hours GMT).

Till now, the Sydney-Los Angeles route has been served by Qantas Airways, the flag-carrier airline of Australia, the United States-based United Airlines, and the Virgin Group’s V Australia Airlines.

With the new service on the Sydney-Los Angeles route, Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, has become the only United States-based airline to fly to six continents.

In a statement, Steven Crowdey, Australian general manager of Delta Air Lines, said Australia is a “very important market” for Delta as the carrier is expanding its worldwide network.

Jodi McKay, Tourism Minister of New South Wales, Australia, told reporters that the new flight launched by Delta Air Lines on the Sydney-Los Angeles route would serve as a big boost to tourism in New South Wales and would bring over 50,000 additional in-bound travellers to Sydney every year.

It is reported that Qantas Airways at present gets nearly 20% of its earnings from the Sydney-Los Angeles route.