Delta Plans Seattle To Singapore A350 Flights, Carrier’s Third Longest Route

We know that Delta has huge growth aspirations across the Pacific, particularly to Asia. It’s an area where Delta has increasingly fallen behind United in recent years, but Delta now hopes to not only catch up, but even beat United. We’ll see what comes of that, and in particular, find out just how costly that growth is.

While this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, Delta executives are now publicly confirming plans to return to Singapore, a destination that hasn’t been served by the airline since 2019, when that was an intra-Asia tag flight from Japan. We’re also learning out of which airport that service will likely operate…

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Delta is eyeing Singapore for further Asia expansion

As Delta executives view it, the airline is pretty maxed out in terms of its European potential, and in the long run, they see the most long haul growth potential in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. So, what kind of expansion should we expect?

• So far, Delta has launched flights to Hong Kong (HKG), and has announced plans to fly to Manila (MNL) and Tokyo Narita (NRT); Riyadh (RUH) flights are also launching soon (we’ll see how that goes), and that’s technically Asia, but not a Pacific flight
• Delta also wants to connect its Los Angeles (LAX) and New York (JFK) hubs to Seoul Incheon (ICN), which is the hub of joint venture partner Korean Air, as Delta loves routing Asia traffic through there
• We’ve also known that Delta plans to once again fly to Singapore (SIN), and we’re learning more about what that will look like

Sean Cudahy reports that Delta Chief Commercial Officer Joe Esposito has just explicitly confirmed that the airline is returning to Singapore. That’s not really a surprise, since we’ve known that was in the cards.

But what’s perhaps most interesting is the hub out of which the service will operate — Esposito ruled out that the service could operate out of Los Angeles, so it’s pretty clear that the airline will operate this service out of Seattle (SEA). That also matches previous reporting from JonNYC.

Now, we’ll see with what timeline this service actually launches. My guess is that we’re looking at a fall 2027 service start, at best. At 8,070 miles, this will be Delta’s third longest flight, after its routes to South Africa, which are from Atlanta (ATL) to Cape Town (CPT) and Johannesburg (JNB).

One certainly wonders if this Singapore route could be operated by Delta’s new Airbus A350-1000s, which will feature an all-new passenger experience. While the plane has great range and per seat economics, the only thing I’d say is that it’s “a lot of plane” for a new market, in terms of the overall capacity (even with the very premium layout).

In both the Seattle and Los Angeles to Singapore market, Singapore Airlines is the only other carrier operating. So competitively there’s not a huge difference in that regard, though Singapore Airlines does have significantly more service out of Los Angeles.

My take on Delta’s Asia expansion plans

It’s fantastic to see Delta looking to grow its presence in Asia. Point-to-point flying to Asia is a market that United has basically had cornered in recent years, and competition is good for consumers.

It’s amazing to think for how many years Delta basically squandered its Asia advantage. Keep in mind that back in the day, Northwest had a robust Asia network, and after the merger with Delta, we saw that network decreased slowly but steadily, as Delta instead focused on routing everything through Seoul Incheon, and into the Korean Air network. So I’m happy to see a reversal of that strategy.

I also have to say that given Delta’s hubris, it’s kind of fun to see the airline having to increasingly play “catch up,” rather than coming in as the dominant carrier. And I think that very much sums up what’s going on in Asia.

The most basic structural disadvantage that Delta has is that United has a fortress hub in San Francisco (SFO), which is where a large part of its Asia network flies from. That’s fantastic for connectivity, not to mention San Francisco is a very strong market for Asia traffic.

Delta, meanwhile, is taking a split hub approach, flying out of both Los Angeles and Seattle. Obviously Delta is trying to make the best of its situation, but there’s no denying that this is an uphill battle:

• Both Delta’s Los Angeles and Seattle hubs are roughly half the size of United’s San Francisco hub, so the connectivity and local loyalty just aren’t there in the same way
• Delta is in second place in Seattle, which isn’t great from a loyalty revenue perspective, given that Alaska continues to be the dominant carrier for the local community
• Los Angeles is a market that’s really hard to win, and if Delta can actually turn it into a profitable hub where it has a significant market share advantage, it’ll be the first airline to succeed at that in the long run
• Compared to United, Delta just doesn’t have the breadth or depth of network that United has; for example, one flight a day to Hong Kong is great, but United’s four flights per day are better

It also has to be emphasized that in terms of actually transporting passengers profitably (or at less of a loss), United does a better job at that than Delta, despite its lower overall profitability. Comparing passenger revenue per air seat mile to cost per air seat mile, United is at 16.18 cents vs. 16.46 cents, while Delta is at 17.37 cents vs. 19.31 cents.

Bottom line

Delta is growing quite a bit in Asia at the moment. The airline has already launched flights to Hong Kong, with flights now on sale to Manila and Tokyo Narita. On top of that, Delta has officially confirmed it plans to fly to Singapore in the near future, with the service likely to be out of Seattle rather than Los Angeles.

It’s great for passengers to see more competition across the Pacific, as Delta sure is making up for a lack of effort for years. However, the airline will also have quite the disadvantage compared to United for a long time…

What do you make of Delta’s plans to fly to Singapore?