Delta Air Lines launches non-stop flights between Salt Lake City and Tokyo

Delta Air Lines has started non-stop flights between Salt Lake City in Utah, the United States, and Tokyo in Japan.
Delta will operate flights between Salt Lake City International Airport and Narita International Airport in Tokyo on all days except Sundays and Tuesdays.
In a statement, Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, and also the largest airline operator in the world, said that the new air service was a part of Delta’s merger with the United States-based Northwest Airlines. 
Northwest Airlines has its biggest largest hub in Asia at Narita International Airport in Tokyo, from where the airline operates non-stop flights to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai in China; Bangkok in Thailand; Jakarta in Indonesia; and Singapore. Also, passengers can reach cities like Seoul in South Korea and Hanoi in Vietnam from Tokyo through other airlines. 
The Salt Lake City-Tokyo service is the second non-stop, international flight for Delta Air Lines from the carrier’s hub in Salt Lake City.

The flight out of Salt Lake for July 3-10, 2009, costs $952.20 round-trip, excluding taxes, on the carrier’s website www.delta.com

For the inaugural flight on the Salt Lake City-Tokyo route on June 3, 2009, Delta Air Lines used an Airbus 330 aircraft.

Delta Air Lines also offers direct flights to Paris, having begun non-stop daily flights to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris in 2008, connecting Salt Lake with Europe.

The website deseretnews.com quoted Spencer P Eccles, chairman of the Salt Lake Chamber, as remarking that “the main point is Salt Lake is becoming an international city, having non-stop flights to Paris and Tokyo.”

Figures given out by the office of Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development show that Japan is the second largest economy in the world, with a gross domestic product of $4.9 trillion. And, in 2008, Japan was Utah State’s seventh biggest export country – with $376 million in products shipped. 

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development has estimated that the new direct air service between Salt Lake City and Tokyo will have an economic benefit of over $90 million for Salt Lake and also create around 1,100 jobs.