Delta Air Lines will be pulling out of one of the few international long haul markets where all of the “big three” US carriers directly compete, as flagged by @IshrionA.
Delta ends Los Angeles to London flights in May 2024
As of May 6, 2024, Delta will discontinue its route between Los Angeles (LAX) and London (LHR). For context, the route is currently operated daily by an Airbus A330-900neo with the following schedule:
DL186 Los Angeles to London departing 8:00PM arriving 2:50PM (+1 day)
DL187 London to Los Angeles departing 4:50PM arriving 8:30PM
Los Angeles to London is a route that’s served by quite a few airlines, including American, British Airways, United, and Virgin Atlantic. While American and United have consistently served this route for a long time, Delta hasn’t.
Delta first started operating this route in 2014, and then canceled the route in 2015. After a nearly eight year suspension, the airline only brought it back in the summer of 2023, only to cancel it again a year later.
Delta has repeatedly tried to position itself as Los Angeles’ leading airline, and the airline does offer more capacity to the airport than American and United. But when the airline can’t even connect Los Angeles to one of the biggest aviation markets in the world, the optics of Delta being a global airline at LAX aren’t great.
Why is Delta canceling its Los Angeles to London route?
There are a couple of things at play here. First of all, Delta and Virgin Atlantic have a joint venture, and Delta even owns a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic. The UK-based SkyTeam carrier operates up to three daily flights between Los Angeles and London.
Airlines generally view joint ventures as part of their overall operation, so I’m sure Delta only views cutting the Los Angeles to London route as a technicality with limited implications, since passengers in the market can fly with Virgin Atlantic.
Furthermore, since London Heathrow is slot restricted, Delta of course isn’t just canceling a service without having another plan in mind. As of May 7, 2024, Delta instead intends to add a third daily flight to London from Atlanta (ATL).
So clearly what’s happening here is that Delta just decided that it’s better off using its own metal for a third flight to London from Atlanta, rather than one flight a day from Los Angeles.
Why, though? Well, that’s a great question, and I’m not sure I have a great answer. Obviously Delta has a very loyal customer base and amazing name recognition in Atlanta, so perhaps the carrier finds that it performs better relative to Virgin Atlantic in markets where it has a fortress hub.
It still doesn’t look great for Delta to launch the same route twice, and have it only last for a year. And as much as internally an airline may consider a joint venture part of its operation, I don’t think all consumers necessarily view it that way.
Bottom line
Delta will be cutting its Los Angeles to London route as of May 2024. The airline only launched this route roughly a year ago, after an eight year hiatus, so this is the second time the route is only lasting for around a year. Delta will be using this London Heathrow slot to instead launch a third daily flight out of Atlanta.
What do you make of Delta cutting its Los Angeles to London route, and what do you think the logic is?
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