A couple of days ago, Delta Air Lines announced plans to launch flights to a second airport in Australia. I wanted to provide an update, as this flight is now on sale, meaning that we have a sense of what the schedule will look like (as that wasn’t revealed when the route was announced).
Delta adds seasonal route to Brisbane as of December 2024
Between December 4, 2024, and March 28, 2025, Delta will offer a new seasonal flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Brisbane (BNE). The 7,161-mile journey will operate three time weekly, with the following schedule:
DL93 Los Angeles to Brisbane departing 11:10PM arriving 7:45AM (+2 days)
DL92 Brisbane to Los Angeles departing 10:45AM arriving 6:15AM
The westbound flight is blocked at 14hr35min and will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while the eastbound flight is blocked at 13hr30min and will operate on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
The flight will be operated by an Airbus A350-900 (not the ex-LATAM version), featuring 306 seats, comprised of:
- 32 business class seats, in a 1-2-1 configuration
- 48 premium economy seats, in a 2-4-2 configuration
- 36 extra legroom economy seats, in a 3-3-3 configuration
- 190 economy seats, in a 3-3-3 configuration
As far as Delta’s long haul destinations out of Los Angeles go, this service complements flights to Auckland, London, Paris, Sydney, Tahiti, and Tokyo. Delta’s only other Australia service is to Sydney, where the airline offers daily year-round flights, and this upcoming peak season, the airline plans to offer up to twice daily flights.
How this fits into the competitive landscape
Delta really is a follower rather than a leader across the South Pacific, and Delta is the last of the “big three” US carriers to fly to Brisbane:
- United flies to Brisbane year-round from San Francisco, and seasonally from Los Angeles; this service was launched in late 2022 and late 2023
- American will be adding a seasonal flight to Brisbane from Dallas; this new flight will operate as of October 2024
Now Delta is following the lead of both United and American, though Delta is at a significant competitive disadvantage when it comes to connectivity in Australia:
- United has a partnership with Virgin Australia, offering substantial connectivity beyond Brisbane
- American has a joint venture with Qantas, so has tons of connectivity throughout Australia
After being dumped by Virgin Australia, Delta launched a casual interline agreement with Rex, offering some connectivity within Australia. Though I think we can all agree that it’s not as significant of a partnership as what United and American have in the region.
Furthermore, Delta will only fly to Brisbane 3x per week, so the carrier’s schedule can’t compete with the daily flights that other airlines are offering.
So, why are US airlines suddenly flocking to Brisbane? As it turns out, the Queensland government is offering each airline tens of millions of dollars in incentives to operate this service, in a big tourism push. These incentives last for a period of three years, so what will be telling is if these routes last once the incentives run out.
US carriers went from operating no flights to Brisbane a couple of years ago, to now in some cases having up to four daily flights. I just can’t imagine this is sustainable. Admittedly US carriers need somewhere to fly wide body aircraft counter seasonally, but I have a hard time imagining this will be some long term goldmine.
It also seems clear that Delta’s route to Brisbane is being launched due to these incentives, given that the airline chose to launch flights to Brisbane before even flying to Melbourne, which is a much bigger market.
Bottom line
As of December 2024, Delta will launch a new seasonal three times weekly flight between Los Angeles and Brisbane with an Airbus A350. Delta is the last of the “big three” US carriers to fly to Brisbane, and the airline will also have the most limited schedule, as well as the least connectivity in Australia. However, that doesn’t seem to matter much, as this route is all about subsidies from the Queensland government.
What do you make of Delta adding flights to Brisbane?
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