Delta Air Lines is giving Tokyo its second Airbus A350-operated route next year, enabling travellers on Atlanta-Tokyo Narita route to book its newest business class offering, Delta One Suites, as well as Delta Premium Select seating.
Starting March 31, 2019 Delta’s newest aircraft is set to take over the route from the Boeing 777-200LR aircraft that currently flies between Atlanta and Tokyo Narita.
Tokyo was the first destination globally to get Delta’s newest aircraft, which debuted last November on the carrier’s Detroit-Tokyo Narita route.
The upgauge means that business class passengers will be able to fly the new Delta One Suites, a product unavailable on the B777-200LR.
Billed as “the world’s first all-suite business class” product when they launched last year, the suites each have a sliding door that creates a fully enclosed space more commonly found in first class cabins. Seats recline to a fully flat bed and the 1-2-1 configuration means all passengers have direct access to the aisle.
While there are five fewer seats in the A350’s business class cabin compared to the B777-200LR’s, the products themselves are wider (22-24 inches versus 21 inches) and for the large part longer (76-81 inches versus 78 inches) than the older Delta One seats.
Passengers also will be able to book Delta’s premium economy offering, Delta Premium Select, rather than having to settle for the longer-legroom Delta Comfort+ seats on the B777-200LR, which are essentially just economy class seats with extra pitch.
While the A350 currently provides noticeably superior offerings compared with the B777-200LR, this won’t be the case for long. Delta plans to refit its B777-200LRs with both Delta One Suites and a Delta Premium Select cabin, and the reconfigured aircraft already appears set to take over the airline’s Los Angeles-Sydney route, also at the end of March next year.
Delta has positioned the A350 as an aircraft specifically suited to its Asian routes, and so far the aircraft currently flies one of its routes to Tokyo, two to Seoul and a Beijing and Shanghai service.
