Delta Air Lines adds three new UK routes for Summer 2023

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• Alex G says:

  27 Sep27 September 05:43

  “The New York JFK to Gatwick service is presumably a spoiler to make life harder for JetBlue, as it makes no sense otherwise to go up against British Airways and Norse Atlantic.”

  Makes no sense to someone living in West London perhaps, but there are 2.6 million people in Kent and Sussex for whom Gatwick is more convenient than Heathrow. The same goes for many in South London or on a Thameslink route.

  There used to be four carriers serving NYC from Gatwick. Perhaps airlines are finally realising that Gatwick had a lot to offer.

  • memesweeper says:

    27 Sep27 September 07:12

    At some point all this extra capacity will start to drive down prices, won’t it? Or is there still a mountain of pent up demand?

    • Brian78 says:

      27 Sep27 September 08:13

      There won’t be much pent up demand to America now that the pound has plummeted versus the dollar!

      Not convinced that’ll drive down prices though, given general inflation.

      • Charles Martel says:

        27 Sep27 September 08:53

        Not travelling from the UK to US but you could see more demand from US to UK, our loss is their gain.

      • mark2 says:

        27 Sep27 September 10:20

        Actually, the dollar has risen affecting Euro, Yen etc.

        • conspicuous-capybara says:

          27 Sep27 September 11:05

          That is a compounding factor, but the pound has dropped against virtually every currency pair imaginable, including the ruble, the Turkish lira, the North Korean won, and the Zimbabwean dollar.

• Ro says:

  27 Sep27 September 06:08

  Good to know BA Onbusiness extension.
  Hopefully official confirmation to follow

• Rand says:

  27 Sep27 September 06:42

  Good luck with redeeming Virgin points on Delta. Has become more of a theoretical possibility.

• ringingup says:

  27 Sep27 September 07:10

  I was going to speculatively book some weekend trips for next year with OnBusiness points, but with this piece of news, I’m in less of a hurry!

• tony says:

  27 Sep27 September 07:36

  “Delta did fly this route as recently as 2008”

  Had to have a chuckle at the idea that 2008 was “recent”. GBP/USD was trading around 1.85, Brown was in No. 10, the iPhone had only just launched and the idea of a £5 pint in a London pub was still a thing of myth.

  And indeed I remember not so long ago when Delta – along with North West Orient, Continental and other names which are no more today – were only allowed to fly from Gatwick. I think it was Pan Am and TWA who had the rights from Heathrow.

  • ADS says:

    27 Sep27 September 10:49

    I think Rob was being sarcastic about 2008 being recent !

    It’s unfortunate that JetBlue didn’t agree some sort of exclusivity on the route for a period of time to establish themselves.

    Spoiler routes do nothing for passengers long term … as eventually JetBlue will be forced out fo the route, and then a few months later Delta will say they are focusing on the Heathrow routes, and they will leave too. But enjoy the next six month of competition!

    • Nick says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:57

      Agree exclusivity with whom exactly? The airport? Other airlines? (but why would they agree?) In either case the CMA would have something to say about that.

    • Andy says:

      27 Sep27 September 17:11

      Just like AA starting a route to New York from Stansted just to put MAXjet out of business.
      As soon as thy went through AA pulled the plug on the route.
      Despicable behaviour

• Andrew. says:

  27 Sep27 September 08:04

  Ooh, Atlanta from EDI. *Quickly goes to Delta site*. Finds fares between £1400 and £1800 in economy…

  Has Coca-Cola decided to make a bid for AG Barr or Highland Spring and block booked seats for execs all summer? Or the HBO fare pots simply not loaded yet?

  • ianM says:

    27 Sep27 September 08:14

    Good option for Golf Tour Operators!

    Be a shame if points options aren’t available, that would be a nice route to ATL for Scotland.

    • Andrew. says:

      27 Sep27 September 08:31

      If Scotland is very cheap for US visitors with the exchange rate. Scotland’s only 6* Golf Resort, gWest, might finally open.

      • BuildBackBetter says:

        27 Sep27 September 09:39

        What happened to Trump’s property in scotland?

        • lumma says:

          27 Sep27 September 09:44

          Turnberry is still Trump Turnberry and is very much open

  • Peggerz says:

    27 Sep27 September 11:55

    Many of my clients from the USA have come in to EDI from Georgia and surrounding states this year. They’ve mostly come in on the red-eye via Toronto or JFK so this new Delta flight next summer will be of great interest to them.

  • astra19 says:

    27 Sep27 September 12:43

    Business hovering over £3000. Not as egregious as some of their other direct flights but I’ll stick to BA for Atlanta for the time being.

• MisterE says:

  27 Sep27 September 08:35

  I have found the Marriott £50 off £200 and £100 off £400 offers to be tremendously valuable over the last few years, so great to see these back across various cards. Quite a few of the English hotels I might visit are missing from the list. Plus, as well as nothing in Scotland, there is nothing in Dublin or Ireland. I’m curious as to what that is. Is it a central decision by Marriott, or individual decisions by each hotel?

• gumshoe says:

  27 Sep27 September 10:20

  Virgin Atlantic has just announced it’s joining SkyTeam.

  • Rob says:

    27 Sep27 September 12:02

    It has, we were there!

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