Delta has just announced additional transatlantic expansion for the summer of 2020. It’s incredible to see the extent to which American has reduced operations in Boston over the years, while Delta has continued to increase their presence there.
In this post:
Delta Increasing Boston Transatlantic Presence By 30%
Delta has announced that they will boost transatlantic capacity out of Boston by more than 30% in 2020. This includes some service that has already been announced, as well as some newly announced service.
Delta has been expanding significantly in Boston:
- Delta has already flown from Boston to Amsterdam, London Heathrow, and Paris
- This summer the airline launched a new seasonal Boston to Edinburgh flight
- This summer the airline launched a new seasonal Boston to Lisbon flight
Now Delta’s expansion in Boston continues.
Delta Adding Boston To London Gatwick & Manchester Routes In 2020
This isn’t actually news, as Delta announced in mid-August that they’d launch flights from Boston to London Gatwick and Manchester in 2020.
As of May 21, 2020, Delta will be launching a new daily year-round flight between Boston and London Gatwick. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 757 with the following schedule:
DL112 Boston to London Gatwick departing 9:00PM arriving 8:45AM (+1 day)
DL113 London Gatwick to Boston departing 11:00AM arriving 1:45PM
Between May 21 and September 8, 2020, Delta will add daily seasonal flights between Boston and Manchester. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 757 with the following schedule:
DL114 Boston to Manchester departing 10:00PM arriving 9:30AM (+1 day)
DL115 Manchester to Boston departing 11:30AM arriving 2:00PM
Delta Adding Boston To Rome Route In 2020
While we already knew about the above, Delta has just announced an exciting new route. Between May 21 and September 8, 2020, Delta will add daily seasonal flights between Boston and Rome. The flight will be operated by an Airbus A330 with the following schedule:
DL20 Boston to Rome departing 5:00PM arriving 7:15AM (+1 day)
DL21 Rome to Boston departing 10:45AM arriving 2:15PM
This will be the fourth destination out of which Delta flies to Rome, as they also fly year-round from Atlanta and New York, and seasonally from Detroit.
Delta Adding Second Daily Boston To Paris Flight
Between May 21 and September 8, 2020, Delta will add a second daily seasonal flight between Boston and Paris. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 767 with the following schedule:
DL226 Boston to Paris departing 11:40PM arriving 12:40PM (+1 day)
DL227 Paris to Boston departing 3:40PM arriving 5:30PM
This complements Delta’s year-round Boston to Paris flight, which operates with the following schedule, also with a Boeing 767:
DL404 Boston to Paris departing 7:06PM arriving 8:10AM (+1 day)
DL405 Paris to Boston departing 10:20AM arriving 12:22PM
Bottom Line
It’s impressive the extent to which Delta is growing out of Boston. The airline is turning Boston into a real hub for transatlantic flights, and I suspect this growth will continue. I’m sure JetBlue isn’t too pleased about this, given that they plan on launching transatlantic flights out of Boston in 2021, so Delta is beating them to the punch here.
What do you make of Delta’s expansion in Boston?
I completely agree with Anthony, who I quote, "the city of Atlanta has an incestuous relationship with Delta, which means it has zero interest in attracting new service to ATL, increasing competition, and driving down fares. The city of Atlanta cares more about making Delta executives happy than it does its citizens having affordable flights." I have been saying all these things for a long time...
However, I don't think he's correct in assuming that...
I completely agree with Anthony, who I quote, "the city of Atlanta has an incestuous relationship with Delta, which means it has zero interest in attracting new service to ATL, increasing competition, and driving down fares. The city of Atlanta cares more about making Delta executives happy than it does its citizens having affordable flights." I have been saying all these things for a long time...
However, I don't think he's correct in assuming that BOS would attract more international traffic than ATL because and I quote, " many Europeans have work/study/tourism reasons to visit Boston, Atlanta is a significantly less desirable destination for Europeans." First of all, I am pretty sure that the majority of international travelers taking DL flights are not European but Americans flying from to Europe and back. And let's face it: ATL has many times more domestic connections than BOS, and if not for stranglehold of ATL airport on DL (79% of all international flights from ATL, according to the latest numbers--clearly a monopoly) with more competition, many more Americans--and Europeans--would fly through ATL.
Again, the root of the problem is what was stated above.
@FNT
You provided a really important insight, thank you.
I completely forgot about corporate travel policies, and those policies can be tough for a business traveler. I can only assume the DL sales and network teams factored this for the BOS services, and they do seem a smart team.
Are you restricted to “lowest fare on the day” of purchase, or could you backtrack via the other gateways to qualify for business? I suspect it’s...
@FNT
You provided a really important insight, thank you.
I completely forgot about corporate travel policies, and those policies can be tough for a business traveler. I can only assume the DL sales and network teams factored this for the BOS services, and they do seem a smart team.
Are you restricted to “lowest fare on the day” of purchase, or could you backtrack via the other gateways to qualify for business? I suspect it’s pretty restrictive for you, such is corporate travel policy.
Though I’m LA-based now, used to be NYC-based, and I now recall the hassle on my weekly trips to London. I got so tired of it, I just started taking the first flight to London, and then the first flight back to NYC after meetings, which meant less than 24 hours with no London overnights on those trips. Tiring. With my status, at least I normally got the upgrades...
All the best...
Many US companies or firms that will pay for business-class to Europe from Detroit, Chicago or Minneapolis because of the distance won’t do so on flights out of Boston because the flight is equivalent to a transcontinental domestic flight. 6 hours or less to London. My firm doesn’t bat an eye at 8 hours in business-class. They would ask questions at paying $3500 for 6 or less hours in business-class, especially when economy is $300-$500...
Many US companies or firms that will pay for business-class to Europe from Detroit, Chicago or Minneapolis because of the distance won’t do so on flights out of Boston because the flight is equivalent to a transcontinental domestic flight. 6 hours or less to London. My firm doesn’t bat an eye at 8 hours in business-class. They would ask questions at paying $3500 for 6 or less hours in business-class, especially when economy is $300-$500 and I could buy an entire row of economy for less than $1500-$1700.
@AJ, the issue is that Delta has a grotesque monopoly at ATL. Moreover, the city of Atlanta has an incestuous relationship with Delta, which means it has zero interest in attracting new service to ATL, increasing competition, and driving down fares. The city of Atlanta cares more about making Delta executives happy than it does its citizens having affordable flights.
Another issue is that while many Europeans have work/study/tourism reasons to visit Boston, Atlanta...
@AJ, the issue is that Delta has a grotesque monopoly at ATL. Moreover, the city of Atlanta has an incestuous relationship with Delta, which means it has zero interest in attracting new service to ATL, increasing competition, and driving down fares. The city of Atlanta cares more about making Delta executives happy than it does its citizens having affordable flights.
Another issue is that while many Europeans have work/study/tourism reasons to visit Boston, Atlanta is a significantly less desirable destination for Europeans. So, while many Atlantans would undoubtedly love to visit Rome, many Italians have zero interest in visiting Atlanta.
I love short nonstop flights to Europe that leave the US around 5pm. I don’t sleep on aircraft, so the shorter (and earlier) the flight the better for me.
It's down to competition, plain and simple. Out of BOS, competition, or planned competition. Out of Atlanta, world's busiest airport with limited options for any arrivals to fly International other than to fly DL, then prices and mileage are higher.
Keep in mind that Delta have a custom built and highly sophisticated pricing / mileage system. They most definitely price according to demand and level of competition. The only folks that are similar to...
It's down to competition, plain and simple. Out of BOS, competition, or planned competition. Out of Atlanta, world's busiest airport with limited options for any arrivals to fly International other than to fly DL, then prices and mileage are higher.
Keep in mind that Delta have a custom built and highly sophisticated pricing / mileage system. They most definitely price according to demand and level of competition. The only folks that are similar to them are Southwest (as Delta uses the same system that was originally designed for Southwest). On Southwest you see less of similar issues as (1) they don't have the international footprint and (2) they don't have the hubs that make this issue so much easier to clearly see on Delta.
I flew DL BOS - LHR for work a few times for work and the key was to eat before the flight - go to sleep immediately, and wake up right before arrival. It was enough to function after a quick stop for breakfast and shower at the Virgin Arrivals lounge.
@sam
the award ticket situation out of atlanta is crappy, but the cash ticket while expensive are available to essentially everywhere you could possibly want to go one stop, which is the trade off that a fortress hub represents.
I have no skin in this game, being an AA EXP based in LA with few trips to BOS.
That said, I do find the DL strategy impressive, basically developing the BOS gateway just like they did SEA. Neither AS or JetBlue have trans-oceanic operations (yet), so the market is there to be taken, and probs relieves some pressure off the JFK operation. It’s also a big enough market to sustain the services substantially on...
I have no skin in this game, being an AA EXP based in LA with few trips to BOS.
That said, I do find the DL strategy impressive, basically developing the BOS gateway just like they did SEA. Neither AS or JetBlue have trans-oceanic operations (yet), so the market is there to be taken, and probs relieves some pressure off the JFK operation. It’s also a big enough market to sustain the services substantially on its own.
The AA/BA (and IB) pact and network is enormous, and AA has been opening some small European routes, but I wonder if they are not being aggressive enough against DL, perhaps especially ex-CLT to Europe given its 700+ daily departures.
Hmmm, given the AA/BA pact, it almost seems unacceptable to cede any UK markets to DL (yes, yes, I know about DL/VA, but they’re a smidgen the size of AA/BA).
Anyhow...for those that it matters to...enjoy the new DL services!!
What Grizzly said: "@PW. The CDG flight is times perfectly: sleep on board and then check into a Paris hotel without asking for a favor."
Irrespective of cabin, bypass both meals and just sleep.
Delta flies crappy planes from Boston to Europe since those are very short flights. I flew on business class from Boston to London and the flight was less than 6 hours so by the time the crew finished serving dinner it was almost time for breakfast. Regarding Rome, not sure that flights will survive. Delta launched seasonal Minneapolis to Rome couple years ago and although the flight was 100% packed they cancelled after 1 year.
I have NO problem taking a swipe (ala) CraigTPA! So here goes: AA HAS REDUCED LOGAN FLIGHTS BCUZ ITS CRAPPY SERVICE CAN'T COMPETE WITH JETBLUE OR DELTA- I do wish they'd go back to the name USAir- AA is gone forever thanks to Parkers "vision".
Totally agree with you Grusa...
Sal,
you obviously don't live in atlanta: more than 90 percent of those flights are domestic...try to book an award ticket from ATL to Europe and you will know what I'm talking about...
Transatlantic from BOS sucks. The flights are too short. You´re getting up in the air, crew starts preparing for dinner, you are being served dinner, your dinner is being cleaned, you have 2-3 hours for sleep before someone will wake you up for breakfast. This must be JetBlue motivated, otherwise this cannot make any sense.
Looks like Delta is trying to do in Boston and the transatlantic market what they've done in Seattle/transpacific. Makes a lot of sense as both support a lot of O/D traffic and are also ideally situated geographically for connections to Asia (via SEA) and Europe (via BOS). In both cases the carrier that already had a hub (Alaska in SEA, JetBlue in BOS) did not have long-haul international service, so there was a huge opportunity for a carrier like Delta.
@Sam
The paucity of direct flights from ATL on DL? LOLOLOLOL!!! There are only 1000+ daily. I can't take anything you wrote seriously after that....
The press release from Delta also says SLC-LHR will become year-round
What GRUSA said about DTW. Really poor to have an airline create a local monopoly *and* charge exorbitant prices. You can wait a long time to see a DL bargain here.
@PW. The CDG flight is times perfectly: sleep on board and then check into a Paris hotel without asking for a favor.
@FNT Delta Diamond. The timing is ridiculous for business class. Iberia's MAD flight has a similar slot; I didn't even try to fall asleep: I go to bed after the arrival time.
I remember AA had daily service BOS-CDG and BOS-LHR for forever. They could have easily brought CDG it back if they wanted since all the while DL only had one flight a day. Who knows what AA is thinking by having no Europe flights out of BOS and now next to nothing out of JFK. AA's stock price should have given them a hint that their Europe strategy is not working.
@Tom @Sam my home airport is DTW. Delta hasn’t added a new route to an exciting vacation destination here in a very long time. They did add Honolulu this summer but quietly bumped it down to seasonal instead of year round. No new routes to the Caribbean or Europe in years. Instead they offer ridiculously expensive tickets that fly thru ATL, CDG, or AMS.
That BOS-CDG flight is surprisingly late.
Surprised they added FCO over MXP. I think Massport has wanted an MXP flight for a while.
@ryby - it's not a "swipe", it's just statistics - AA has reduced its presence at Boston Logan, which used to be a major city for them. If Ben had said "AA had reduced Logan flights because its crappy service can't compete with JetBlue or Delta on service...", or something to that effect, that could be characterized as a "swipe".
I agree that the DL transatlantic buildup is probably fueled, at least in part, by...
@ryby - it's not a "swipe", it's just statistics - AA has reduced its presence at Boston Logan, which used to be a major city for them. If Ben had said "AA had reduced Logan flights because its crappy service can't compete with JetBlue or Delta on service...", or something to that effect, that could be characterized as a "swipe".
I agree that the DL transatlantic buildup is probably fueled, at least in part, by a desire to get a jump on JetBlue, and the Rome service is also hedging their bets against Alitalia either failing or being bought by someone who would take it out of Skyteam.
If I’m not mistaken when this route will become operational it will be the second daily flight connecting Rome and Boston. The other one is operated by Alitalia.
@AJ
Will it amaze you or piss you off if I tell you it's often for me to see connecting in ATL cheaper than DTW MSP or NYC. People like you unfortunately have to subsidized my flights so they can call ATL the busiest airport on earth.
The Boston–Rome flight is scheduled way too early for (a) connections from elsewhere in the United States and (b) getting any sleep. Boston-Europe flights are pretty short as they are, but leaving at 5 p.m. means many passengers will have trouble sleeping even in Delta One.
AJ, I also live in Atlanta, and wholeheartedly agree with everything you said about DL in Atlanta: the paucity of direct flights out of ATL; outrageous mileage requirements flying from ATL; its stranglehold on ATL airport (probably because of the corrupt relationship with ATL city hall, which is by the way, being investigated by FAA and FBI for numerous improprieties, and possibly criminal acts with regard of ATL management of its airport)...
I've talking about...
AJ, I also live in Atlanta, and wholeheartedly agree with everything you said about DL in Atlanta: the paucity of direct flights out of ATL; outrageous mileage requirements flying from ATL; its stranglehold on ATL airport (probably because of the corrupt relationship with ATL city hall, which is by the way, being investigated by FAA and FBI for numerous improprieties, and possibly criminal acts with regard of ATL management of its airport)...
I've talking about that for years,,,
Have any of the previous commenters flown JetBlue out of Boston? I don’t quite think there’s an amazing old-fashioned fare war going on, but I do think Delta is trying to disrupt both B6 and the IAG carriers at Logan — at least for business travelers. Thoughts?
Still no Delta One Suites out of Logan. I had route myself through DTW on the way to AMS just to check out the Suites.
You just had to find a way, somehow, in any way or form possible, to take a swipe at AA. At every turn possible.
We get that you despise the airline and bitterly so.
AJ,
That is what happens when a single airline has a huge monopoly at an airport. In your case it is Delta at Atlanta, but you could also cite American at Miami or United at SFO.
They also fly to Dublin from Boston btw
Glad to see some BOS love!
This is great for Boston. These destinations are all typical leisure hotspots which are very popular in the summer.
I'm honestly surprised that Delta is going head to head with Norweigan on the Rome flight and am surprised that Delta didn't make NY-Rome Double daily, but any extra capacity is good news!
It amazes me that Delta continues to neglect ATL. DL has better lounges at other airports. They charge exponential cash rates (on par with how many skymiles they charge) to fly out of ATL. They announce 500 new routes and not one out of ATL? What's up with that?
I'm based in ATL and it amazes me that DL on J Award tickets frequently incentives me to fly through BOS on my way to Europe, the last time was a trip to CDG which routed ATL:BOS:CDG:ATL for significantly fewer miles than ATL:CDG:ATL. I'm fine doing it and saving the miles, but I prefer direct from ATL (obvious) or heading west to go east (DTW/MSP or even SLC) so that I have time to enjoy dinner and get more than 2-3 hours of sleep before landing in Europe.