Delta Airlines this week has announced 11 new transatlantic routes for 2006, including a new daily Manchester to New York flight and an Edinburgh to Atlanta route. The new services will be from its two transatlantic gateways at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Edinburgh to Atlanta service will begin operating on 5 May 2006 with a wide-bodied 767-300ER configured in two classes – BusinessElite and Economy and a total of 204 seats. The Manchester service will begin with a 767-400 with an all economy product, which will then be reconfigured into the two-class product during the course of the year.
The new routes are as a result of Delta reducing capacity in its domestic market and moving more of its wide-bodied planes onto international routes where competition is less fierce and yields are higher.
Other new routes Delta will fly to next Spring include:
Athens, Greece – Atlanta (effective May 30)
Nice, France – Atlanta (effective May 10)
Venice, Italy - Atlanta (effective June 7)
Budapest, Hungary - New York/JFK (effective May 9)
Dublin/Shannon, Ireland - New York/JFK (effective May 16)
Manchester, England - New York/JFK (effective May 16)
Kiev, Ukraine - New York/JFK*
Tel Aviv, Israel – Atlanta (previously announced to begin March 28)
Düsseldorf, Germany - Atlanta (previously announced to begin April 4)
Copenhagen, Denmark - Atlanta (previously announced to begin May 2)
(*The Kiev-JFK service is subject to U.S. and foreign government approvals. All remaining routes listed except JFK-Manchester are subject to foreign government approval.)
Delta is also increasing the seasonal capacity between Atlanta – Shannon, Ireland and between New York (JFK) and Rome, Italy.
Report by Tom Otley
