Delta Air Lines has just revealed the next location for its premium international lounge network, and it’s not the airport that I would’ve expected…
In this post:
Delta One Lounge planned for SLC
We’re finally seeing Delta One Lounges come to life. The Delta One Lounge New York (JFK) and Delta One Lounge Los Angeles (LAX) have opened recently. Then the Delta One Lounge Boston (BOS) is supposed to open in December 2024, while the Delta One Lounge Seattle (SEA) is supposed to open in early 2025.
We’ve now learned about the location for the fifth lounge in the network, as reported by Sean Cudahy, and confirmed to me by a Delta spokesperson. There are plans for a Delta One Lounge to open at Salt Lake City Airport (SLC). As of now, no further details have been shared, so it remains to be seen when the lounge will open, how big it will be, etc.
For context on the current lounge situation at the airport, there’s a 28,000 square foot Delta Sky Club in Concourse A at the airport. It’s my understanding that a similarly sized Sky Club is planned for Concourse B, though I now feel like that could at least partly become the new Delta One Lounge, if I had to guess.
Keep in mind that there are also plans for an Amex Centurion Lounge in Concourse B, and it’s expected to open in 2025. There are largely overlapping access requirements, given the close relationship between Amex and Delta, so Delta passengers will have quite a bit of lounge capacity at the airport.
If I’m missing something obvious regarding other potential locations for the lounge, please let me know. But given the advance notice and approval that’s required from local authorities for lounge developments, it’s often hard to keep this secret.
What does this mean for Delta’s SLC strategy?
The first four locations that were announced for Delta One Lounges were in competitive markets, which aren’t fortress hubs for Delta. As you can tell, Delta didn’t start with its most dominant hubs — Atlanta (ATL), Detroit (DTW), Minneapolis (MSP), or Salt Lake City (SLC).
That’s probably for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that airlines don’t feel like they need to invest as much in the passenger experience in their fortress hubs.
Now we’ve seen a lounge announced for Salt Lake City, which isn’t necessarily the first market that you’d assume would get such a lounge. Salt Lake City is currently Delta’s fastest growing core hub. However, it’s overwhelmingly a domestic and regional hub for the airline, with limited long haul service.
Currently Delta’s only long haul flights from Salt Lake City are to other SkyTeam hubs, including Amsterdam (AMS), London (LHR), and Paris (CDG). Furthermore, in 2025, Delta plans to launch a route to Seoul Incheon (ICN), another SkyTeam hub. The Seoul Incheon route also represents Delta’s first long haul route from the airport with an A350, so we may see more of those stationed there.
That being said, what additional long haul growth could we really see out of Salt Lake City, especially with the extent to which Delta is so focused on routing long haul traffic through joint venture hubs?
- Across the Atlantic, I just don’t see Delta expanding all that much to secondary markets, since it’s more efficient for the airline to route people through places like Atlanta and Detroit
- To Asia, it seems like this would have to come at the expense of some service from either Los Angeles or Seattle; maybe we could see a Tokyo flight, but I don’t see much more service than that
- With the LATAM joint venture, perhaps we could see some Delta South America service, though I don’t see that necessarily being hugely successful
- If anything, maybe we’ll see more service from partners, like Air France-KLM, LATAM, Scandinavian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, etc.
So it’s possible that I’m missing something, and that Delta has some other big plan here. Or I think it’s also possible that Salt Lake City is just getting a Delta One Lounge since the timing makes sense. The airline is actively working on opening a huge new lounge at the airport, so it’s easy enough to convert part of that into the Delta One Lounge.
Meanwhile it’s much harder to undertake such an initiative at an airport that’s already at capacity, without construction.
Bottom line
A Delta One Lounge is coming to Salt Lake City Airport, though we don’t have any details beyond that. My guess is that this will be part of the new Delta Sky Club coming to Concourse B, but maybe I’m missing something.
This development is noteworthy, as Salt Lake City is the first Delta fortress hub that’s expected to get a Delta One Lounge. That’s interesting, because it’s also the Delta fortress hub used least for long haul, international service.
What do you make of plans for the Delta One Lounge SLC?
given that SLC has the lowest number of widebody flights of the remaining "core" 4 hubs, this means that DL is clearly on track to have Delta One lounges at 8 airports.
Can someone(s) kindly post the locations of premium business class lounges for each of AA and UA - and for that matter any other airline that flies to the US?
Seems to me that 8 airports with D1 lounges will be class -leading. Not bad considering DL had none just a year ago.
Let's align our numbers with reality and basic fact checking. Delta currently has a grand total of 2 actual D1 lounges at LAX/JFK with 3 planned in SEA/BOS/SLC.
UA has a total of 6 at LAX/SFO/ORD/IAH/EWR/IAD with 7th planned in DEN.
AA has 5 with LAX/DFW/MIA/ORD/JFK and 6th planned in PHL.
That still makes Delta the airline with the least business class lounges existing or planned.
Assuming they build them in all 8 locations.
"and for that matter any other airline that flies to the US?"
I'd list all the ones for Emirates, but they have 39 total (32 outside the UAE).
Singapore has 11 SilverKris lounges alone.
Sigh. Another exercise in Tim Dunn logic. Delta itself hasn't even announced plans to open D1 lounges in 8 airports, and yet here you are saying "they're clearly on track" to do so. Clearly to you, but not to anyone who doesn't have Delta fanboy glasses on (including, apparently, the CEO of Delta, who has made no such announcement that they're "on track" to open 8 lounges).
Let's apply Tim Dunn logic to other airlines:
Sigh. Another exercise in Tim Dunn logic. Delta itself hasn't even announced plans to open D1 lounges in 8 airports, and yet here you are saying "they're clearly on track" to do so. Clearly to you, but not to anyone who doesn't have Delta fanboy glasses on (including, apparently, the CEO of Delta, who has made no such announcement that they're "on track" to open 8 lounges).
Let's apply Tim Dunn logic to other airlines:
Since Greenland has the lowest numbers of US visitors, and United has just announced a flight to there, clearly, United is on track to have flights to every single city in the entire world that is larger than Nuuk, Greenland! No matter that United hasn't announced any further int'l expansion. Such details aren't necessary to see the track clearly. Can you kindly point out all of Delta's international flights to cities larger than Nuuk? Clearly United is leading!
Since AA has announced lie-flat beds in its A321XLR planes (not yet delivered, but who cares about such details?), clearly American is on track to have lie flat beds on every single plane that is the same size or larger. Can you kindly point out all of Delta's single body jets that currently have lie-flat seats? Clearly, American is leading!
Usually, you take Delta's announcements and compare it to other airlines' actual, existing service, as if Delta vaporware is the same as an existing product (yet strangely not allowing the same courtesy in reverse, taking other airlines' announcements at face value and comparing them to Delta's current services). But now you've outdone yourself by going beyond Delta's announcements, to somehow psychically divine what Delta's plans are beyond what they've announced, something that only exists in your fevered imagination, and then challenge people to compare that to United and American's currently existing lounges.
Generating more TPAC revenue from a captive hub rather than the allegedly super profitable competitive SEA?
Sure hope a DTW D1 Club is still in the works. Thought the small Skyclub was built for that?
Yes, the smallish Sky Club was supposed to be for Delta One. But it's probably too small for the number of passengers. The main Sky Club is supposed to be renovated later this year to add a permanent bar and a better food area. I suspect we'll see something about Delta One after that time.
I would guess they put it in A concourse - perhaps renovating part of the existing sky club after the B concourse sky club opens. All the international arrivals (and presumably departures unless they are going to tug planes to B) are at A so it wouldn’t make sense for the D1 lounge to be at B and all departures at A
Would love to see D1 to NYC added. Current daytime flight to JFK is almost always sold out in J days before departure.
SLC to JFK in Delta One would be a really short route. You could make the same argument for Denver too. Delta tried Seattle for years and it just never worked.
Fully agree that this lounge should be in the A concourse. Delta occupies all A gates and, while Delta uses B gates that's where all the other airlines are. But who knows, maybe the widebody traffic will all be out in B
1) SLC is a fast growing metro in a fast growing state
2) D1 passengers connecting in NYC, LAX and such to other D1 flights will be Abe to access the new D1 lounge
3) I think Delta flies D1 to both OGG and HNL from SLC, so don't forget those flights as well
Interested to see what Delta plans for ATL in this space...
SLC as the next location is not some big strategy. They were building a new concourse and a new lounge, so they are adding a D1 lounge. Same story as SEA. Having the first D1 lounges at JFK and LAX may have been strategy, but I think everything after that will just be when they have the opportunity.
+1 Dont think overthink strategy or metrics to the order of the build outs.
Pretty surprised to see this news as well but also neat to see. My guess is that it's easier and less expensive to build a new D1 lounge at SLC compared to ATL, MSP, or DTW given that they are pretty built out, as you mentioned Lucky. SLC just went through a massive airport redevelopment and my guess is that DL secured some extra space ahead of time too.
On the AA side, it would...
Pretty surprised to see this news as well but also neat to see. My guess is that it's easier and less expensive to build a new D1 lounge at SLC compared to ATL, MSP, or DTW given that they are pretty built out, as you mentioned Lucky. SLC just went through a massive airport redevelopment and my guess is that DL secured some extra space ahead of time too.
On the AA side, it would be great to see CLT get a Flagship Lounge (which could happen given the plans for a new and expanded Admirals club there within the next several years). PHX would be another good spot for a Flagship Lounge even though they only have 2/day LHR flights- just not enough room to expand in T4 nor enough international flights to warrant one at the moment.
Delta didn't just come up with the idea of adding Delta One lounges last year but rather years ago.
SLC has been in the process of rebuilding its terminal and now has great facilities that are only going to get better as the facility is expanded.
SLC will probably end up w/ one of the smallest longhaul international flight portfolios of all of the intercontinental DL hubs (LGA obviously excluded) but the current known 4...
Delta didn't just come up with the idea of adding Delta One lounges last year but rather years ago.
SLC has been in the process of rebuilding its terminal and now has great facilities that are only going to get better as the facility is expanded.
SLC will probably end up w/ one of the smallest longhaul international flight portfolios of all of the intercontinental DL hubs (LGA obviously excluded) but the current known 4 destinations is apparently enough to justify a D1 lounge.
And, the international widebody gates and FIS are on the A concourse so I don't think the D1 lounge will be on B; I doubt if DL paid for FIS facilities in 2 concourses - and, yes, DL is paying for most of the rebuild of the SLC airport.
In the now partially deleted article from Bastian's chat up in MSP, there was a slip about a D1 lounge there so they will be coming to the "core" hubs.
Ironically, ATL will probably be the hardest to figure out because DL operates widebody international flights out of 2 concourses and there is supposedly not a lot of room left for more lounges w/o costly additions.
DL already has the most lounge space of any airline in the world but they are clearly nowhere near finished adding to their list.
Someone was awfully vocal about it's going to be MSP next but never said anything about SLC.
Now SLC is part of a grand scheme.
I wonder who it was.
feel free to find the original article and talk w/ the person who was there.
There was no doubt that DL would expand D1 lounges to the core hubs; it is simply a question of what hubs come first
A couple of considerations for this decision.
1. They just built a new airport with lots of space
2. There has been a significant growth of tech companies setting up in Lehi
3. SLC is always in competition with United for the mountain west business so given the recent renovations in DEN they feel they need to be competitive to grow this business
Additionally I expect delta is opening smaller lounges to understand how to scale the product before opening them in markets like Detroit and Atlanta
They better keep them coming
When you look at the top 10 Mormon countries quite a few are from Latin America and you could see SLC as a connection from anywhere from a lot of the central US to Latin America. I have to say it's a surprisingly progressive city compared to others between the appalachian and the continental divide. A you don't interfere with us and we won't with you.
This is weird bc SLC barely has any Delta One flights?
They don't even have daily LHR? And the remaining is the usual 1x CDG/AMS with the new addition of ICN. I suppose HNL is classified as Delta One, but that's less than 5 flights a day.
Obviously DL is thinking ahead and bullish on SLC. There will be more Delta One flights. If not, the lounge could be a place for high value customers to enjoy something more elevated than the Sky Club.
It'll probably be telling to see how the lounge hours are. SLC has 2 primary D1 flight departure times, one mid-day around 11amish, and then an afternoon 3pm bank. Arrivals are all basically in the afternoon as well overlapping.
This is a huge investment for something that will probably be very underutilized, I don't see Delta running an expensive D1 lounge all day just for Delta 360 passengers to run up the bill.
Honolulu is daily on a 767. So, it has Delta One. Isn't there a Maui flight, too? Maybe that one has Delta One. I imagine there are at least 100 or 200 Delta 360 passengers. They would get access if flying Delta domestic first-class. So maybe, 400 passengers a day? Maximum. I would guess some combination of: (a) Delta is going to add more long-hauls, (b) partners like Virgin Atlantic and Air France are adding...
Honolulu is daily on a 767. So, it has Delta One. Isn't there a Maui flight, too? Maybe that one has Delta One. I imagine there are at least 100 or 200 Delta 360 passengers. They would get access if flying Delta domestic first-class. So maybe, 400 passengers a day? Maximum. I would guess some combination of: (a) Delta is going to add more long-hauls, (b) partners like Virgin Atlantic and Air France are adding long-hauls to SLC, and (c) Delta thinks its can also route more passengers from high-demand Denver and Phoenix through Salt Lake City.
Don't underestimate Salt Lake City and Utah.
The state is booming in all the right areas. Demographically, relocations, and businesses (including a half-dozen or so Fortune 500 companies).
There's a relatively large international or ethnic population, thanks to the Mormon church.
You have multi-millionaires and billionaires with second or third homes there because of the skiing.
And wait for it ... Salt Lake hosts the 2034 Olympics.
So, compared to say Minneapolis or Detroit, Salt...
Don't underestimate Salt Lake City and Utah.
The state is booming in all the right areas. Demographically, relocations, and businesses (including a half-dozen or so Fortune 500 companies).
There's a relatively large international or ethnic population, thanks to the Mormon church.
You have multi-millionaires and billionaires with second or third homes there because of the skiing.
And wait for it ... Salt Lake hosts the 2034 Olympics.
So, compared to say Minneapolis or Detroit, Salt Lake City probably has much higher origin and departure passengers.
"So, compared to say Minneapolis or Detroit, Salt Lake City probably has much higher origin and departure passengers."
That's not quite true. DTW and MSP have 2 and 3 million more O&D passengers domestically than SLC.
SLC is growing fast, so my guess is that Delta forsees sustained rapid growth that will justify this investment, considering that they average less than 5x daily Delta One flights.
Is that combined? I have a hard time believing that Detroit on its own has more O&D than SLC.
SLC Metro is 1/3 the pop of Detroit Metro. People way overestimate populations in the mountain west and pacific northwest relative to california, texas, and the midwest/east coast.
O&D traffic numbers:
- MSP: 11.5M
- DTW: 10.5M
- SLC: 8.7M
SLC actually has the least amount of O&D among the top 30 airports in the US.
SLC has a lot going for it. Mormon population on the decline (which is sad from an etiquette/decorum perspective, but good from a not-being-in-a-cult perspective). Kirkland & Ellis opened its SLC office three years ago. Imagine being 24 years old fresh out of law school and making $250k (inclusive of bonus) in SLC. Even better, imagine being a partner making $8MM (avg. profit per equity partner) while having access to the best airline in the...
SLC has a lot going for it. Mormon population on the decline (which is sad from an etiquette/decorum perspective, but good from a not-being-in-a-cult perspective). Kirkland & Ellis opened its SLC office three years ago. Imagine being 24 years old fresh out of law school and making $250k (inclusive of bonus) in SLC. Even better, imagine being a partner making $8MM (avg. profit per equity partner) while having access to the best airline in the country and now the top tier lounge of such a top tier airline.
Oh and I almost forgot the nature, skiing, etc. is just absolutely amazing out there.