Delta Air Lines will consider expanding its services to Auckland if demand grows further into winter.
Most traffic is from the US to this country, and the airline will fly daily between Auckland and Los Angeles from Oct 26 to Mar next year before dropping to three times a week until May.
DL has been flying to New Zealand for three years for an extended summer season and its vp Asia Pacific Jeff Moomaw (pictured) says extending that to year-round is in the consideration set. “Auckland has a pretty peak and valley demand curve to it.”
If that flattened out throughout the year, DL would look at extending flying. “But for now we’re trying to match what we’ve got in terms of supply with the demand.”
. . . Aircraft Plans
The carrier is taking delivery of new A350-1000s from early next year. They will be fitted with 53 next-generation Delta One suites with sliding privacy doors, alongside Premium Select, Delta Comfort and Main Cabin seating.
Moomaw says the aircraft will be well suited to ultra-long-haul routes to Australasia, but added that it hadn’t made a decision on which routes they would be deployed on first. Its transpacific routes are the big driver of DL’s growth.
DL has just launched seamless baggage transfer at LAX for customers travelling from Sydney, eliminating the need to collect and recheck bags during connections, he adds.
Work is now underway to expand this system, and he says extending it to AKL could come in the next two years.
