Delta Air Traces is launching a noteworthy new path to South America out of New York.
Delta provides new Buenos Aires route as of October 2023
As famous by @IshrionA and per a schedule submitting, Delta will launch a day by day nonstop flight between New York (JFK) and Buenos Aires (EZE). The route is anticipated to launch on October 28, 2023, and needs to be on sale shortly. It would function with the next schedule:
DL115 New York to Buenos Aires departing 8:50PM arriving 8:00AM (+1 day)
DL114 Buenos Aires to New York departing 8:15PM arriving 5:35AM (+1 day)
Delta will use a Boeing 767-400ER for the route, that includes 238 seats. This contains 34 enterprise class seats, 20 premium economic system seats, 28 additional legroom economic system seats, and 156 economic system seats. The 5,282-mile flight is blocked at 10hr10min southbound and 10hr20min northbound.
That is technically a service resumption, as Delta final operated this route roughly 14 years in the past, in 2009.
How this Buenos Aires flight matches into Delta’s community
It’s fascinating to see Delta’s method in Latin America these days. Remember that in September 2019, Delta introduced plans to purchase a 20% stake in LATAM. This caught the business abruptly, since beforehand American and LATAM partnered, and LATAM was a part of oneworld.
This was clearly an try on Delta’s half to be extra aggressive in Latin America. Admittedly Delta’s timing right here was unlucky, since this was proper earlier than the pandemic. Not solely did this horribly affect worldwide demand, however the worth of its LATAM funding additionally plunged.
So, how does this new route flight match into Delta’s general technique, and the aggressive panorama?
- Delta in any other case completely flies to Buenos Aires out of Atlanta, so it will solely be the provider’s second path to Buenos Aires
- LATAM has a reasonably small presence in Argentina, and its LATAM Argentina subsidiary ceased operations in 2022; Delta does, nevertheless, have a partnership with Aerolineas Argentinas, which can be in SkyTeam
- Delta’s solely different vacation spot in “deep” South America out of New York is Sao Paulo, which is a serious LATAM hub
- Delta will likely be competing head-to-head in opposition to American, which has been serving this route for a really very long time, regardless of having a smaller New York presence than Delta; Aerolineas Argentinas additionally serves the route, however isn’t a very aggressive airline
It’s fascinating to me how little enlargement we’ve seen to Latin America on account of the LATAM funding. So far as the three largest LATAM hubs goes, Delta solely flies to Lima out of Atlanta, to Santiago out of Atlanta, and to Sao Paulo out of Atlanta and New York. I consider all these routes have been additionally operated earlier than the funding.
Now, some would possibly say that a part of the intent is that LATAM more and more flies to Delta’s gateways, although we haven’t seen a lot of that both. LATAM doesn’t fly to Atlanta or Detroit, and the provider has maintained most of its service to Miami, regardless of Delta’s restricted presence there (admittedly Miami is the largest O&D marketplace for Latin America).
The one different new route we’re seeing is a Sao Paulo to Los Angeles route on LATAM, launching in a number of months.
I get why Delta needed to develop in South America, however is that this partnership actually delivering many outcomes?
Backside line
As of late October 2023, Delta will likely be launching a brand new day by day nonstop flight between New York and Buenos Aires with a Boeing 767. This would be the provider’s second route from New York to “deep” South America, with the opposite one being to Sao Paulo.
It’s cool to see extra competitors available in the market, although I can’t assist however discover it fascinating how Delta hasn’t considerably elevated its presence in Latin America since buying a stake in LATAM. Perhaps we’ll see extra of that, now that worldwide journey is recovering.
What do you make of Delta’s New York to Buenos Aires route?