There’s an exciting update when it comes to the Delta Sky Club at my home airport…
In this post:
Larger Delta Sky Club Miami now open
On April 9, 2024, Delta opened its newly expanded Sky Club at Miami Airport (MIA). The lounge has expanded by nearly 4,000 square feet, and has added 100+ seats, increasing capacity by more than 50%. The club is now over 12,000 square feet, and is able to accommodate around 300 guests.
As Delta describes it, the expansion’s design takes inspiration from Miami’s bright colors and sunny beaches. There’s a new mosaic paying homage to the city’s Art Deco architecture, and the overall color palette includes blue, turquoise, white, and gold.
In order to support the higher volume of guests, the expanded Delta Sky Club has an additional buffet and beverage station. The expanded seating includes single-seat dining tables, a communal table, and more. Furthermore, seating throughout the club has been refurbished, to match the elevated look of the newly added space.
The expansion of the Miami location is the first growth we’re seeing to Delta’s lounge network this year. Later in the year, we should see new Sky Clubs in Charlotte (CLT) and Seattle (SEA), as well as three Delta One Lounges, opening in New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), and Boston (BOS).
Here’s how Claude Roussel, Delta’s VP of Sky Clubs and Lounge Experience, describes this lounge expansion:
“Miami is an important global transport hub, with increasing prominence in the Delta network. The expansion and renovation of the MIA Club helps us support the growth in this market and elevates the lounge experience to one suited to the profile of this vibrant city.”
Sadly Delta hasn’t grown all that much in Miami
I’m thrilled to see a larger Delta Sky Club in Miami, since the previous lounge wasn’t big enough to accommodate the amount of demand. Then again, most Sky Clubs aren’t big enough to accommodate the demand, given the number of ways to access them. 😉
Miami is of course a fortress hub for American, with the airline operating nearly 400 daily flights from the airport during peak season (and that number is expected to grow to 500 when the airport expansion is completed).
The thing is, I had hoped that Delta would try to take on American in Miami, but unfortunately that never really materialized. In 2019, Delta announced it would purchase a 20% stake in LATAM, which was a major development, given that American and LATAM previously had a close partnership.
Miami is of course by far the biggest international gateway for Latin America, and it’s also by far LATAM’s largest station in the United States. So for some time, it looked like Delta would expand significantly in Miami, to provide additional feed to these flights, not to mention that Miami has been a hot destination in and of itself.
Admittedly the airline couldn’t grow to American’s size given terminal constraints, but still, many of us had hoped for material service increases.
Unfortunately that never really materialized. Yes, Delta has grown marginally, but it’s far from a competitor to American. Delta now has up to 34 departures per day from Miami, to 12 destinations. Service is almost entirely to Delta’s hubs, as well as to Havana (HAV), Raleigh (RDU), Orlando (MCO), and Washington (DCA).
To be clear, I’m not saying Delta is wrong for not expanding more in Miami beyond service to its existing hubs. It’s just that selfishly I would have liked to see a bit more competition among airlines at my home airport.
Bottom line
The expanded Delta Sky Club Miami has just opened. The lounge now has an additional 4,000 square feet and seating for an additional 100 people, expanding capacity by around 50%. This was definitely needed, given the consistent crowding issues at Delta Sky Clubs. For that matter, Miami’s lounge situation is just generally pretty grim, especially outside of Concourse D.
What do you make of the Delta Sky Club Miami expansion?
At least it should be good as a VS, AF elite
Lucky,
Any plans to review the Chicago Sky Club?
One other gripe for the MIA terminal. The shops selection in the middle of the terminal features the lowest brow touristy items that I rarely see get a look from domestic or international passengers. And two huge sundries with the same items a few gates apart. How about more variety of space utilization or even monetization? If there was a healthy food option in the middle of the terminal with seating, what a benefit to the DL terminal.
As someone who flies through the MIA DL terminal many times a year, what I would add as a frustration beyond the lack of material airlift growth so far is the state of the terminal itself. Old and limited bathrooms. Poor food choices between H and J. Crowded gate areas with insufficient seating. Jets that can’t go to the gate due to hold ups from Spirit. Insufficient security screeners and lines a plenty. I appreciate...
As someone who flies through the MIA DL terminal many times a year, what I would add as a frustration beyond the lack of material airlift growth so far is the state of the terminal itself. Old and limited bathrooms. Poor food choices between H and J. Crowded gate areas with insufficient seating. Jets that can’t go to the gate due to hold ups from Spirit. Insufficient security screeners and lines a plenty. I appreciate MIA is an old airport with space issues but much more can be done than just more flights and a nicer Sky Club. Not to say I don’t want more flights. MIA to LGA should be a gold mine for high paying finance people on last minute trips and DL a natural carrier for more frequent service. To which leisure travelers would benefit as well. Another slight gripe about this route is the LGA departure is frequently in the old area of the terminal which can’t please the many elder passengers and small kids who have to walk the furthest distances from security to the gate.
AA "fixed" that problem by spending billions of dollars on a new terminal that added tens of millions of dollars to their expense - and hasn't increased their average fares on routes that compete with other airlines that operate in the older part of the airport.
for years, DL's terminal D at LGA was better than the main terminal which other airlines and that didn't affect anything competitively. The same is true here.
as...
AA "fixed" that problem by spending billions of dollars on a new terminal that added tens of millions of dollars to their expense - and hasn't increased their average fares on routes that compete with other airlines that operate in the older part of the airport.
for years, DL's terminal D at LGA was better than the main terminal which other airlines and that didn't affect anything competitively. The same is true here.
as long as DL upgrades what it can - public areas are generally under airport control while airlines can pay to do what they want w/ lounges - differences in parts of airports won't matter and customers know it.
And all the fluff so far in the comments has nothing to do with SkyClub.
Nothing about what dump the old place was.
No one's addressing how the line sometimes go all the way to TSA checkpoint would get better?
Maybe pointing out the better ones between LA lounges or SkyClub. Hint, your Amex card can't get you in the better one.
This is awesome! Looking forward to checking it out soon.
I was also hoping for more destinations on Delta out of Miami. There is definetly demand for them to fly to Tampa (to connect passengers to LATAM), as well as other cities with large Latin American populations that can connect in MIA to LATAM.
With this expansion, will Virgin Atlantic, Air France, KLM, or ITA use the Sky Club for their premium passengers?...
This is awesome! Looking forward to checking it out soon.
I was also hoping for more destinations on Delta out of Miami. There is definetly demand for them to fly to Tampa (to connect passengers to LATAM), as well as other cities with large Latin American populations that can connect in MIA to LATAM.
With this expansion, will Virgin Atlantic, Air France, KLM, or ITA use the Sky Club for their premium passengers? It sure would be nice to have another lounge in the South Terminal which airlines can use, because the Turkish Lounge is way too crowded during peak hours, and the only other lounge is the LATAM Lounge (which is also crowded). A Plaza Premium Lounge would be amazing for MIA!
Delta competes fairly effectively from Central Florida to S. America via Atlanta; many markets are split in share between AA via MIA and DL via ATL.
In terms of ASMs to Latin America, DL's hub at ATL is #2 behind AA at MIA. DL at ATL IS a Latin America superpower.
The number of markets that DL can't serve from the US to Latin America is pretty small - and DL also connects many more Asia and European markets to Latin America at ATL than AA can do at MIA.
I assume your comment about Central Florida is referencing my point about Delta adding service from Tampa to Miami.
Tampa is not considered Central Florida. Tampa is referred to as the Bay Area. Central Florida refers to Orlando and its surrounding cities. And Delta launched flights from Orlando to Miami soon after the LATAM partnership started, in order to feed passengers from Orlando to Miami onto LATAM flights.
And while Delta does serve...
I assume your comment about Central Florida is referencing my point about Delta adding service from Tampa to Miami.
Tampa is not considered Central Florida. Tampa is referred to as the Bay Area. Central Florida refers to Orlando and its surrounding cities. And Delta launched flights from Orlando to Miami soon after the LATAM partnership started, in order to feed passengers from Orlando to Miami onto LATAM flights.
And while Delta does serve many Latin American cities from Atlanta, LATAM serves more from Miami, and many of those destinations have big expat populations in Tampa, who would be better served with a connection in Miami rather than connecting in both ATL and BOG or GRU. Delta doesn't need another hub in Miami, but they already have the huge presence from LATAM, which would help fill up flights to certain destinations from Miami. That should help Delta if they expand at MIA (not too much, but a few new destinations currently dominated by AA would be nice).
thanks for the correction on Tampa being not considered Central Florida.
Delta does connect a significant number of passengers NORTH OF A LINE FROM PBI to RSW via ATL to Latin America. For many O&Ds, AA and DL have fairly equal shares.
DL simply does not need to add a bunch of domestic flights to feed MIA as long as Latam can fill the seats it offers.
It is indeed true that DL serves...
thanks for the correction on Tampa being not considered Central Florida.
Delta does connect a significant number of passengers NORTH OF A LINE FROM PBI to RSW via ATL to Latin America. For many O&Ds, AA and DL have fairly equal shares.
DL simply does not need to add a bunch of domestic flights to feed MIA as long as Latam can fill the seats it offers.
It is indeed true that DL serves more cities in LATIN AMERICA than LA does from MIA because Latin America includes Central America which LA does not serve from MIA.
And I am not even sure that your statement about LA serving more cities in S. America from MIA than DL from ATL is even correct but feel free to provide a list of cities.
IF DL decides to enter the MIA to Central America plus whatever S. America markets it needs to fly on its own metal - which includes EZE which LA does not serve from the US and is not part of the JV - DL might add more domestic flights to help feed those markets even if they could be served via ATL.
And there are markets that neither DL or LA serve in S. America which could work for either including on the A321NEO and those routes would obviously be shorter from MIA than ATL - and there is clearly a larger local market.
And to Ben's concern, DL will get around to doing more in MIA when it has the strategic bandwidth to do so.
Given what it has done on both coasts in the past few years, they clearly have succeeded at what they sought out to do.
And their gains have largely come at AA's expense so they clearly see value in doing the same at MIA even though AA has a much firmer grip on MIA than on any other hub where DL has grown competitive with AA.
Tampa is not referred to as the Bay Area. It's known simply as Tampa Bay.
Geographically, it's West Central Florida.
So are we talking about Delta's Latin America strategy or the MIA SC?
If solely the SC, it is now slightly larger than other newer non-hub SCs such as in AUS, BNA, and MCI at least by square feet.
as for DL growing in MIA, in case you missed it, and I know everyone sees life through their own lens, since 2020 and the covid era, DL has grown at BOS and LAX to...
So are we talking about Delta's Latin America strategy or the MIA SC?
If solely the SC, it is now slightly larger than other newer non-hub SCs such as in AUS, BNA, and MCI at least by square feet.
as for DL growing in MIA, in case you missed it, and I know everyone sees life through their own lens, since 2020 and the covid era, DL has grown at BOS and LAX to become the largest carrier at both airports. I don't know of any other carrier that has passed a competitor to become the largest at any other large US airport so I'm sure DL will be happy to point out that they have been just a bit more preoccupied.
DL also managed to become the largest carrier from both NYC and LAX to Latin America - major markets for both AA and UA and a pretty significant achievement in partnership with LA.
and DL's pre-covid stated intent was to add several other domestic markets from MIA - never to grow anywhere near AA's size so even suggesting that they could do that was foolish.
Obviously, LA has managed to fill its flights from MIA with enough local traffic and the connections it already gets from other carriers including DL. In fact, to many S. American cities, LA has more seats than AA - and all of those markets are part of the DL/LA JV.
DL just said during its earnings call that it will be focusing on rebuilding its core hubs even further this year - which means little growth for its coastal 4 hubs. MIA would have never made sense to grow this time of year anyway.
But the year is still young and DL could decide to start building in MIA if it is comfortable w/ where its other hubs are. DL has a very significant ability to not commit to more projects than it can succeed at; look at how many people talked about DL's on and off growth at LAX - while they grew and defended their presence in NYC and on the east coast. And now they are #1.
DL will grow MIA and it is likely to include some domestic markets, some markets in Latin America that are not part of the LA JV and some markets in S. America where DL needs to have a presence on its own metal.
LA has its own lounge at MIA so until DL starts its own longhaul service, it has enough lounge capacity. And because deep S. America flights leave at different times than the domestic system, DL's larger lounge could easily be enough for 3-5 flights to deep S. America and a dozen narrowbody flights elsewhere in Latin America. If DL achieves that the MIA market will change.
No ifs, ands or buts.
Holy crap, the comment is longer than the original post… blah, blah, blah.
you weren't the audience.
It ALL goes way over your head.
Nope, understand perfectly. Much smarter than you. Anyone can regurgitate data like you do. It’s actually understanding it and drawing distinctions that matter. Which you don’t understand. Succinctly summarizing something is much more impressive than rambling responses.
Whoever you are, you should know that there isn’t a single OMAAT reader who gives a crap about you or your useless comments. At least Tim Dunn contributes something of value to this forum.
You are just a little weasel
"At least Tim Dunn contributes something of value to this forum."
Entertainment value of a sort?
DL has tried longhaul from MIA (twice now?) in the last 15yrs or so, and it's never lasted for them.
Even with LATAM and the rest of SkyTeam@MIA's help, it doesn't seem likely that anything would be different for DL if they tried again.
feel free to remind me what longhaul markets DL has tried out of MIA but I believe they included LHR (and LGW before as part of the Pan Am acquisition) which VS now flies and, IIRC, AMS - which has no service including by KLM at least right now.
And the point is that, if DL adds service from Latin America from MIA it will be to markets which LA does not fly, markets where...
feel free to remind me what longhaul markets DL has tried out of MIA but I believe they included LHR (and LGW before as part of the Pan Am acquisition) which VS now flies and, IIRC, AMS - which has no service including by KLM at least right now.
And the point is that, if DL adds service from Latin America from MIA it will be to markets which LA does not fly, markets where DL needs to strategically be, or markets where DL is the only carrier that can serve a market - such as EZE or Central America.
and the DL-LA is allowing DL to talk to corporate travel managers about Latin America travel as it never has been able to because MIA is a key part of the Latin American market. AA has had a lock on that market for decades; UA wasn't successful with its short-lived MIA hub that it acquired from Pan Am. There are bound to be corporate accounts that DL can win because it can add MIA to Latin America even as part of the JV and those agreements will include markets which DL could start to round out what LA serves.
It is a matter of when, not if, DL adds its own service from MIA to Latin America.
Until then, and maybe even after then, the expanded SC will be large enough
KLM does fly between Miami and Amsterdam. However, the flight is seasonal and doesn't operate in the summer (I believe the route just ended recently for the season).
As usual, the Timmy Dunny robot is dreaming. The only ‘new’ route’ that LA added as part of the JV from MIA was MIA-MDE. And we just heard that that route is going to be dropped (having not even flown for one year). And yet we have the Timmy Dunny robot saying DL will add 3-5 deep South America destination. LOL!!