Delta Air Lines will be cutting a seasonal route to Germany after just one season, and I can’t say I’m that surprised.
Delta cuts seasonal New York to Munich Boeing 767 flight
In the summer of 2024, Delta added a variety of new seasonal routes across the Atlantic. Among those was a route between New York (JFK) and Munich (MUC), which is operating 3x weekly between April 7 and October 24, 2024, using a Boeing 767, with the following schedule:
DL238 New York to Munich departing 6:05PM arriving 8:25AM (+1 day)
DL239 Munich to New York departing 11:45AM arriving 2:40PM
Delta had planned to bring back this route in the summer of 2025, as the flight had been on sale… until now. As noted by @IshrionA, Delta will be cutting its seasonal service between New York and Munich, and the flight is no longer on sale.
Delta will continue to fly from both Atlanta (ATL) and Detroit (DTW) to Munich (the former is year-round, the latter is seasonal). On top of that, out of New York, Delta will continue to fly to Frankfurt (FRA) 3-7x weekly, on a year-round basis.
This will be Delta’s third route cut to Germany in recent times, with the two other routes being much more significant. We recently saw Delta end its routes from Atlanta to both Dusseldorf (DUS) and Stuttgart (STR). Those were both unique routes, as no other airline operated transatlantic flights from those airports.
I’m not surprised to see Delta ending this route
I was caught off guard when Delta added the New York to Munich flight in the first place, so I’m also not surprised to see it cut:
- 3x weekly frequencies paled in comparison to what the competition offers, as the Lufthansa and United joint venture offers multiple daily frequencies between Newark and Munich (and that doesn’t even factor in flights out of New York), not to mention has the advantage of tons of connectivity on both ends
- While some people visit Germany for summer vacation (I mean, I do!), it’s not nearly as “hot” as France, Italy, or Spain; you’d think that a New York to Munich route would be more about business than leisure, especially with a lack of connectivity, and therefore wouldn’t be summer seasonal
- With Delta already flying to Munich out of Atlanta and Detroit (both of which have tons of domestic connectivity), the route was very much about serving the New York market
Simply put, people on the Upper East Side paying cash for Delta One mostly aren’t saying “I wanna go to Munich this summer.” Maybe there’s some Oktoberfest demand, but that hardly justifies a route. And that’s why this route wasn’t going to work, or at a minimum, wasn’t going to be the best use of an aircraft.
Bottom line
Delta won’t be bringing back its seasonal New York to Munich route in 2025. This was only added in 2024, so it’s one of those few cases where network planning folks probably didn’t guess right… hey, no one is perfect! I can’t say I’m surprised, though I’d consider this to be much less significant than Delta’s recent route cuts to Dusseldorf and Stuttgart.
What do you make of Delta cutting its New York to Munich route? Feel free to keep your response to just a few sentences. 😉
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