Delta Air Lines plans to resume more international routes in June, after suspending nearly all of its overseas flights due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The airline said while its flight schedule is still "significantly reduced" for June compared to last year, it will resume more domestic flights in Atlanta and New York and to the Caribbean, Latin America and other international stops.
Delta announced that it plans to resume Atlanta-London Heathrow flights starting in June, with less than daily service.
Atlanta-based Delta also plans to resume flights from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to destinations including Kingston and Montego Bay; Jamaica.
In Latin America, the airline plans to resume flights from Atlanta to Cancun, Mexico and Panama City, Panama.
And it plans to resume flights from Atlanta to Lagos, Nigeria in June, subject to foreign government approval.
The carrier is resuming a number of nonstop flights to Canada from more northerly hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis, New York and Seattle, but not from Atlanta.
While Delta intends to resume routes to Shanghai via Seoul from a trans-Pacific gateway in Seattle, Delta's June flight schedule announcement does not include any nonstop routes from Atlanta to Asia.
Delta had planned to resume flights from Atlanta to Sao Paulo, Brazil in June, but canceled those plans after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation banning the entry of foreign nationals coming from Brazil effective May 27.
“While this may be disruptive to some travelers, action is needed to protect the public from further spread of the virus,” said acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf in a written statement.
While Delta’s plans are much broader for June, the airline also warned that the flight schedule is subject to change “due to the evolving nature of COVID-19.”
On June 5 Delta canceled plans to resume flights this month from Atlanta to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos and to St. Maarten. Then on June 10 it canceled plans to resume flights from Atlanta to San Pedro Sula, Honduras this month. On June 15 it canceled previous plans to resume flights to Aruba and Bonaire and San Salvador. Earlier, it canceled plans to relaunch flights in June from Atlanta to Costa Rica; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Nassau; Bermuda; St. Lucia; and Bogota.
In its domestic flight schedule, Delta plans to resume more flights between hubs in June. That helps allow Atlanta travelers, for example, to connect through other hubs to Asia and Canada once those routes resume.
Delta is adding more than 100 daily flights to its schedule in June “to ensure that we have enough seats in markets where demand is improving, while also importantly adhering to our 60% load factor cap that we have put on the operation,” said Delta chief financial officer Paul Jacobson.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said on FoxBusiness that planes average 35-40% full. “Once we get close to 60% on an individual route, that will be the trigger for us to add more planes into the system,” he said.
The June flight schedule includes more international routes from Atlanta than Delta had in April and May.
In April, Delta’s international route schedule from Atlanta consisted of flights to Amsterdam, Mexico City and San Juan.
May brought the addition of flights to Paris, Frankfurt, St. Croix and St. Thomas.
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