At the moment, Delta Air Lines is growing across the Pacific, as the airline tries to catch up with United Airlines a bit when it comes to long haul flying. Delta is increasingly leaning into Los Angeles (LAX) as a long haul hub, and we’ve seen the airline add flights to Hong Kong (HKG), with Manila (MNL) service launching soon.
Executives at the Atlanta-based carrier claim the goal is to beat United across the Pacific. So, how does United CEO Scott Kirby, one of the industry’s most outspoken people, feel about that? Apparently he’s not losing any sleep over it (presumably neither his 8.5 hours per night of sleep, nor his daily nap!).
Scott Kirby trash talks Delta’s Pacific expansion
JonNYC shares how United’s CEO had a Q&A with pilots in Denver, and Kirby was asked if he has any concerns about Delta’s growth in Asia and across the Pacific. His answer?
“No. We have the best Pacific hubs. We are 5x bigger than DAL in the Pacific. Markets DAL is opening in Pacific are low yield and half empty, like HKG. They don’t have the right aircraft for the Pacific. SFO is the best Pacific gateway to have. We’ll be #1 across both oceans.”
Kirby certainly didn’t mince words here. In the past when asked about Delta’s Pacific aspirations, he said he has “a lot of respect for Delta, and what they have done, and I take it as a huge compliment that Delta is beginning to acknowledge that they have an equal that they’re worried about and trying to compete with us.” When asked what he wants to beat Delta on, Kirby replied “everything.”
Meanwhile around the same time, Delta President Peter Carter commented on United, saying “we always have to be hungry to win, and I say that because I know United is out there competing against us and replicating the playbook a little bit.” He continued by saying “bring ’em on.”
Several weeks ago, United Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella said the following in an internal meeting for employees, echoing the comments about Delta’s challenges across the Pacific:
“The [UA] LA-HKG route is quite successful now as a result of [the BKK/SGN tags]. We face new competition now from another airline based in ATL, and I know they’re not going to do very well there. I can already tell from their pricing. They’re unable to fill up their airplanes.”
Delta is the underdog, let’s see how it all plays out
Delta is unarguably a very well run business — the carrier has long been the most profitable US carrier, and that’s because they do some things really well. However, there’s no denying that the airline is also the underdog when it comes to its Pacific expansion, and has a lot of catch-up to play.
Historically, some people have tried to argue that United’s Pacific flying wasn’t actually that profitable. Well, if that’s the case, then you can bet that Delta’s Pacific growth won’t be profitable any time soon either. There’s simply no denying that United is better positioned for Asia with its San Francisco fortress hub, compared to Delta’s split hub strategy (in terms of the number of connecting flights, corporate contracts, depth of network, and local market pricing power).
Am I happy to see Delta expanding to Asia? Absolutely, competition is good for consumers. Will this growth be profitable any time soon? Almost certainly not. Will it be profitable in the long run, by some metric? Well, we’ll see…
With current oil prices, I can’t help but think that some of Delta’s long haul growth will start to negatively impact profitability. There are already starting to be signs of this based on Q2 2026 financial results, when comparing year-over-year capacity growth to yield growth across the Pacific:
- United saw 10.9% yield growth on 4.1% capacity growth
- Delta saw 7% yield growth on 8% capacity growth
- American saw 17.3% yield growth on 8.2% capacity growth
As you can see, there was a negative outlier, and it wasn’t American, for once. At American and United, yield growth greatly exceeded capacity growth in the Pacific region (more than double, in both cases), while at Delta, capacity growth exceeded yield growth. I don’t think that will get any better when Delta launches Manila flights.
And fortunately for Delta, the new Riyadh (RUH) route isn’t considered part of the Pacific, but that route will probably have some hilariously bad economics, at least before you add in whatever subsidies Saudi Arabia is offering. Assuming it does launch in the coming weeks, I think this might be a contender for the “emptiest new long haul route ever launched by a US carrier” award.
Bottom line
Delta is currently growing across the Pacific, and wants to not only take on United, but beat the carrier in long haul flying. That’s a very lofty goal, and Delta is massively the underdog here.
United CEO Scott Kirby is laughing off this growth, claiming Delta’s expansion is low yield and planes are half empty. He argues that Delta doesn’t have the right planes or hubs for the Pacific, and insists United will remain number one across both oceans.
What do you make of Kirby’s comments about Delta’s Pacific growth?
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